208 - VESTIER, Antoine (Avallon 1740 – Paris 1824). “Portrait of Madame Marie Thérèse Rouillé d’Orfeuil,” oval canvas signed lower left “Vestier regis Pictor / 1787.” 79 x 62 cm. Carved and gilded oak frame, Louis XVI period

VESTIER, Antoine (Avallon 1740 – Paris 1824). “Portrait of Madame Marie Thérèse Rouillé d’Orfeuil,” oval canvas signed lower left “Vestier regis Pictor / 1787.” 79 x 62 cm. Carved and gilded oak frame, Louis XVI period Provenance: Exhibition: - Paris, 1787 Salon of the Royal Academy; no. 143; - Countess de Lantivy de Trédion, direct descendant of the sitter; - then passed down through the family. Bibliography: - *Mercure de France*, September 22, 1787, p. 180, no. 38. - Anne-Marie Passez, Antoine Vestier (1740–1824), La Bibliothèque des arts, Wildenstein Foundation, Paris, 1989: p. 160, no. 57 (in her entry, Ms. Passez believes that the first version, exhibited at the Salon, was the painting formerly in the collection of Antoine Rouillé d’Orfeuil, from the Montalivet collection, at the Knoeder and Co. gallery in New York, which has dimensions identical to those of our painting, and mistakenly describes ours as a replica. Since the other version is neither signed nor dated, and since Ms. Passez indicates that she judged it based solely on a photograph, we believe that our painting is the first one, the one exhibited at the Salon). Marie-Thérèse Rouillé d’Orfeuil, née Radix de Chevillon, belonged to a family of the high nobility of the robe. The daughter of Claude Mathieu Radix de Chevillon and Marie-Thérèse Dupuy de La Garde, she was born in Paris in 1760. Her father was a royal counselor and treasurer general of salaries for the Parliament of Paris. On February 14, 1777, she married Baron Antoine Louis Rouillé d’Orfeuil, a descendant of a line of magistrates from Champagne, and himself a royal counselor. Her dowry, amounting to two hundred thousand livres, was truly substantial. Her husband succeeded his father in 1786 and became Intendant of Champagne. After the French Revolution, he held important positions under the Consulate and then the Empire. His loyalty to the imperial administration made him an influential man who was able to find his place during the Restoration. Marie-Thérèse and Antoine Rouillé d’Orfeuil had one son and two daughters. The eldest, Gaspard Marie Louis, became prefect of Eure-et-Loir. This portrait depicts her holding a book in her hand, leaning on a red velvet cushion, with attention to her costume reminiscent of the works of Vincent and Madame Vigée-Lebrun. Dressed in a pearl-gray taffeta gown, tied with a blue-striped sash, our subject looks at the viewer with a slight smile. In his famous book *Women Who Read Are Dangerous*, Stefan Bollmann wrote, regarding reading during the Age of Enlightenment: The Rococo and Enlightenment eras certainly embraced the idea of pleasure. Gone are the days when readers laboriously pored over heavy folios. Books now fit easily and lightly in the hand, and reading poetry and novels has become a new pastime offered by private life. Reading is no longer merely a means of dispelling boredom but becomes an experience of individual freedom? (Adler and Bollmann, Flammarion, 2015, p. 70). This excerpt could have described our painting, a perfect illustration of the role of reading and women’s emancipation during the Age of Enlightenment, at a time when literary salons and gatherings were flourishing. Expert: TURQUIN Firm