219 - JOSEPH DUCREUX (1735–1802), Surroundings of

JOSEPH DUCREUX (1735–1802), Surroundings of A pair of portraits depicting Nicolas Jacques Papillon d'Auteroche (1727–1794) and his wife Marie-Antoinette Louise Bremont de Voucienne (1732–1792) Pastels 60.5 x 50 cm Bears a handwritten inscription on the back: “1783” Provenance: Private collection, Château de Juvigny, near Châlons-en-Champagne. As a Fermiers Généraux official, President-Treasurer of France at the Châlons Finance Office, and Intendant of the Menus-Plaisirs and affairs of the Count of Artois (the future Charles X), Papillon d’Auteroche, along with his brother Papillon de la Ferté—himself Intendant of the King’s Menus-Plaisirs—was at the heart of the artistic scene during the final years of the monarchy: ceremonies, court performances, and the royal family’s entertainments were all under the authority of the Intendants of the Menus-Plaisirs. He was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal and guillotined on May 8, 1794, at Place de la Révolution. From his marriage to Louise Bremont de Vouciennes, daughter of a treasurer of war for Champagne, five children were born, two of whom survived: a son, Denis, known as Papillon de Sannois (descendant of the Godart de Juvigny family), and a daughter, Jeanne, Countess Jean-Baptiste de Lucay (General Farmer, owner of Valençay, which he sold to Talleyrand), lady-in-waiting to Empress Marie-Louise, whose daughter Antoinette would marry General Philippe de Ségur.