Alexis Simon Belle (1674-1734), Attributed To, Quality Woman Portrait

Alexis Simon BELLE (1674-1734), Attributed to Portrait of a lady of quality in a red dress around 1710 (Louise Marie Thérèse Stuart?) Oil on canvas Dimension: 73 x 59.5 cm Dimension with frame: 84 x 71 cm Alexis Simon BELLE (1674-1734): The latter is a French painter, specializing in court portraits. He first studied with his father, then entered as a pupil of François de Troy (1645/46-1730), painter at the court of King Jacques II of England in exile in Saint Germain en Laye. He began to work in Saint-Germain from 1698 until 1701. This period was a period of peace between France and Great Britain. The Jacobites could cross the English Channel carrying the paintings of James Edward Stuart and his sister, Princess Louis Marie. François de Troy was then the only court painter of James II and needed the help of Belle, his best pupil, to be able to carry out the paintings which were commissioned from him. In August 1700, Belle won the Prix de Rome, but went to Saint-Germain instead of traveling to Italy. On November 12, 1701, Belle married Anne Chéron (1663–1718), miniaturist painter, sister of Elisabeth Chéron (enamel painter, engraver and poetess) and appeared as "painter in ordinary to the King of England". Following the death a few weeks before of King James II, he was thus recommended to his son James Edward, who had been proclaimed King of England, Scotland and Ireland by King Louis XIV. Alexis Simon Belle therefore became the main painter of the Jacobite court, where he and his wife settled and worked. Approved on September 24, 1701 at the academy, when he already bore the title of painter to His Britannic Majesty, he was received on August 4, 1703 with the portraits of Pierre Mazeline and François de Troy After the war broke out again between Britain and France in 1702, his portraits of James Edward Stuart (The Old Pretender) and his sister the Princess Royal, continued to be smuggled across the Channel, and Belle did other work for members of the court as well as for the English Augustinian convent in Paris. In connection with our painting see photo 9 which represents a portrait of Louise Marie Thérèse Stuart by Belle which is now kept in the English Royal Trust. We can observe many similarities between the two faces. Photo 10 is a portrait of a woman by Belle which is held in the National Gallery in Dublin. The construction of the portrait is identical whether in the color of the dress or in the drape.