Jean-Baptiste Perronneau
Madame Jacques Nicolas le Boucher d´Ailly
Pastel. . 69.2 x 56 cm (oval)..
In a French frame of the period..
Signed and dated lower left: J. B. Perroneau / 1770. .
Jean-Baptiste Perroneau, together with Maurice Quentin de la Tour and the Venetian Rosalba Carriera, who also worked in France for a time, form a trio of the greatest pastellists of the second half of the 18th century. Perroneau travelled to the French province for portrait commissions and thus came to Abbeville in northern France in 1767. Here he painted several portraits, including the famous portrait of the cloth manufacturer Abram van Robais (now in the Louvre) in 1869 and this one the following year. It shows Madame d´Ailly, the wife of military commander Nicolas La Boucher D'Ailly, at the age of 42.
Provenance
M. de Boiville, Abbeville. - Gimpel & Wildenstein. Paris. - Sold to Ernest Cronier (1840 - 1905) in 1903. - Estate sale of Ernest Cronier, Georges Petit gallery, 06.-08.12.1905, lot 39. - Acquired from Duveen Brothers. - Alphonse Kann, Saint-Germain.en-Laye. - His estate sale, Georges Petei gallery, Paris, 06.-08.12 1920, lot 133. - The Goldast collection, estate sale Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 08.-09.02.1939, lot 52. - Susana Garrahan until 1969. - Sotheby´s New York 28.01.2015, lot 123.
Literature
A. Alexandre: La Collection E. Cronier, in: Les Arts Nr. 47, November 1905, p. 14. - L. Vaillat / P. Ratouis de Limay; J. B. Perroneau (1715 - 1783), sa vie et son oeuvre, Paris 1909, p. 138, no. 39. - L- Vaillat / P. Ratouis de Limay: J.B.P., 2nd edition, Paris 1923, p. 107, 150, 193, 207 , 226. - R. Gimpel: Journal d´un collectionneur, marchand de tableaux, Paris 1963, p. 310 (entry from 2nd November 1925). - R. Gimpel: Diary of an Art Dealer, New York 1966, p. 307. - N. Jeffares: Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800. London 2006, p. 405 (illus.)