Pair Of Portraits Of Anne-marie Beuzelin De Bosmelet And Her Mother Renée Bouthillier De Chavigny

Portrait of Anne-Marie Beuzelin de Bosmelet (1668-1752) standing in front of a window overlooking a view of trees and in front of a high armchair upholstered in red fabric. She is dressed in a rich red dress, wearing an ermine coat over her shoulders and her hair in a fontange style.  
Oil on canvas
Former Château de Bosmelet collection (annotated in black ink on the reverse of the canvas and stretcher "P.P Château Bosmelet")
The painting is presented in a carved and gilded wooden frame decorated with scrolls and stylised foliage, acanthus leaves and flowers.
Louis XIV period
Restoration
H. 128 x W. 96 cm (when viewed)
H. 158 x W. 124 cm (with frame)


Portrait of Renée Bouthillier de Chavigny (1643-1711) seated and leaning against a console, posing with her dog in front of a green cloth, with a discreet window showing the sky. She is wearing a red embroidered dress and a white stole, and her hair is done in a "fontage" style.
Oil on canvas
Former Château de Bosmelet collection (annotated in black ink on the reverse of the canvas and stretcher "P.P Château Bosmelet")
The painting is presented in a carved and gilded wooden frame decorated with scrolls and stylised foliage, acanthus leaves and flowers.
Louis XIV period
Restoration
H. 127 x W. 95 cm (when viewed)
H. 158 x W. 124 cm (with frame)


Anne-Marie Beuzelin de Bosmelet (1668-1752) and her mother Renée Bouthillier de Chavigny (1643-1711) are the two protagonists of our portraits. Renée was the daughter of Léon Bouthillier, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs under the reign of Louis XIII. From a very influential family, she married Jean Beuzelin (the son), who was then President à mortier of the Parliament of Rouen and a member of the King's Council of State and Privy Council. Together they had a daughter, Anne-Marie. To understand the importance of this family, we need only read Saint-Simon, who described this only daughter as "extremely rich", and observe the words of Madame de Sévigné, who described her as one of the most beautiful parties in France.
In 1698, she married Henri-Jacques Caumont duc de La Force (vice-president of the finance council, member of the Regency council, peer of France, biographer and politician, member of the Académie française, founder and patron of the Académie de Bordeaux). These two historical figures have a rich and well-documented history, making our paintings front-line witnesses to a fascinating era.
Each of our portraits is marked "PP Château de Bosmelet - number 6" on the back of the canvas. Most likely kept in the château for many decades, this moving provenance of the portraits of their inhabitants only makes these works more interesting. 
Château de Bosmelet is located in Normandy and still exists today. It was built in 1632 at the request of Jean Beuzelin, Renée Bouthillier's father-in-law, and is very much in the style of Louis XIII.

The works in our study can be compared with other portraits of Anne-Marie and Renée. A portrait of Anne-Marie by François de Troy is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen. The collections of the Thomas du Fossé de Bosmelet family were sold by Kâ Mondo on 1 June 2021, revealing three portraits of the mother and three of the daughter. In addition, a portrait not identified as Anne-Marie but with a composition almost identical to ours was sold by Aguttes under lot number 30 on 11 June 2012. Finally, a disturbing oil on canvas, depicting a man and a woman, attributed to Pierre Gobert and sold at Sotheby's on 5 December 2007, offers an interesting detail for our study. The woman has an identical face, identical hairstyle and identical hair ornaments.