253 - 18th-century French school. Portrait of Thérèse BOUROTTE (1757–1823), wife of Pierre BLAIZOT (1740?–1808), official bookseller to Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, and the royal family at Versailles. Oil on canvas. 33 x 27.5 cm.

18th-century French school. Portrait of Thérèse BOUROTTE (1757–1823), wife of Pierre BLAIZOT (1740?–1808), official bookseller to Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, and the royal family at Versailles. Oil on canvas. 33 x 27.5 cm. Pierre Blaizot was a bookseller and dealer in prints, sheet music, maps, and wallpaper. Above all, he was the official bookseller to King Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, and the royal family. He was the son of a book peddler from Montsurvent, near Coutances. Orphaned at the age of 9, he was trained by an uncle who ran a book and print shop on the Rampe de la Chancellerie in Versailles. He himself set up shop there around 1769. In 1775, he opened a literary salon in Versailles and another store in Paris. Suspected of selling banned books, he was imprisoned from May 10 to 16, 1782. He was elected a city councilor of Versailles in 1790 and 1792, then served as a judge on the commercial court and as an alternate judge on the justice of the peace court. His home was searched and raided several times during the Revolution. In July 1792, he sold his shop to the bookseller Nicolas Angé; then, in 1802, he helped his son-in-law Antoine-Hippolyte Etienne (1776–1840) establish himself as a bookseller, though he appears to have continued practicing his profession. (source: BnF). He married Thérèse Bourotte in November 1776. A portrait of Pierre Blaizot was offered for sale on August 21, 2026, in Limoges (Pastaud Auction House, lot 1591).