Lot 2070 Dα

This rare, monumental portrait of a rearing horse can be closely compared to a series of seventeen portraits of horses, commissioned by Marshal de Tessé for his Château de Vernie, nowadays kept in the Le Mans museum.
Marshal de Tessé had a strong interest in horses and riding, as clearly emerges from his correspondence during the visit to the stables of Duke Charles IV of Gonzaga in Mantua; the series of portraits for his castle, in which the horses are represented standing without jocker in front of urban landscapes, certainly draws inspiration from the Mantuan examples in Palazzo Te (ill. 1) and seems to be a unique example in the repertoire of French palaces of the Ancien Régime.
The city in the background is Dinant on the Meuse (nowadays in Belgium), sieged and conquered by the French, on May 30, 1675, is represented with the castle and the fortification commissioned by Louis XIV to Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban.