Portrait of Anne Louis Goislard de Montsabert, Comte de Richbourg-le-Toureil

Description

By positioning the figure close to the picture plane and engulfed in a swirl of drapery, Nicolas de Largillière created a remarkably informal likeness of the 26-year-old Goislard. This impression is enhanced by the sitter’s open shirt and the drift of wig powder that dusts the shoulders of his velvet doublet. Warm hues and thick brushstrokes reveal the artist’s study of earlier Flemish painters, notably Anthony van Dyck. Despite his youth and seeming nonchalance, Goislard was a figure of prominence. He may have commissioned this work to commemorate his appointment to the Parlement, or governing council, of France in 1732, or earning the title Lord of Montsabert the following year.

Provenance

Anne Louis Goislard de Montsabert and the Montsabert family; Possibly Comte André de Ganay [1863-1912], Paris1; Charles Fairfax Murray [1849 – 1919], London, sold to Thomas Agnew & Sons; (Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, sold to Calouste S. Gulbenkian)1; Calouste S. Gulbenkian [1869 –1955], sold to Thomas Agnew & Sons; (Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, sold to Charles Fairfax Murray); Charles Fairfax Murray [1849 – 1919], London; (Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Fairfax Murray sale, June 15, 1914, no. 24, sold to Bousquet); Bousquet 1 (1914-); Galerie Cailleux, Paris, sold to the Detroit Institute of Arts with funds provided by Ernest Kanzler 1 (1959-1966); Ernest Kanzler [1892-1967], Detroit, MI 1 (1966-1967); The estate of Ernest Kanzler and Rosemarie Kanzler, sold to Eugene V. Thaw (1967-1970); (Eugene V. Thaw, New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)1 (1970); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio (1970-)