Portrait Madame De Montespan (1640-1707) Françoise Athénaïs De Rochechouart De Mortemart XVIIth

Portrait Madame de Montespan (1640-1707) Françoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart Marquise Louis XIV XVII Pierre Mignard
Superb oval portrait of Madame de Montespan (1640-1707).

She is recognizable by her long blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes, the marquise is very beautiful.
The facial features are very fine, the skin tone is of a high quality of execution.
The marquise is named in the upper part: “M. DE MONTESPAN”

Mistress of Louis XIV, Madame de Montespan, was an important figure at court. She gave birth to seven children of this royal affair, six of whom were legitimized by the King.

Portraits of the marquise are rare on the market.
This work is to my knowledge not signed but there is no doubt that it was made by a talented painter, an attribution to the painter Pierre Mignard is quite possible.
Many portraits on the market are in fact studio covers executed after original paintings of the great court painters like Mignard.
I did not find an identical table, so it is not a copy of a known table.

This work of the seventeenth century formerly returned and in very good condition.
The posterior frame requires a small restoration.

Frame dimensions: 57 x 49 cm
Dimensions out of frame: 41 x 33 cm

Madame de Montespan (1640-1707)

Born on 5 October 1640 in Lussac-les-Châteaux, France, she was the daughter of Gabriel de Rochechouart de Mortemart and Diane de Grandseigne, a family of the French nobility.
In 1663 she married Louis de Pardaillan de Gondrin, Marquess of Montespan, who gave her the title “Madame de Montespan”.
Over time, she became one of the confidantes of Duchess Louise de la Vallière.
Madame de Montespan will be noticed by Louis XIV by his beauty, his intelligence and his sharp mind, hereditary spirit of the Mortemarts. Thus the beautiful marquise conquered the king’s heart and became the mistress of Louis XIV in May 1667.
The Marquise de Montespan was a key figure in the life of the castle. His circle “became the centre of the court, of the pleasures, fortune, hope and terror of ministers and army generals,” Saint-Simon notes in his memoirs. With a pronounced taste for luxury and the arts, she covers her walls with paintings and makes her apartment «the center of the spirit» of the Court of the King. Under his protection are placed such illustrious artists as Molière (1622-1673) dit Molière, Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695), or Philippe Quinault (1635-1688).
From 1669 to 1678, Madame de Montespan gave birth to seven children of this royal affair, six of whom were legitimized by the King. His relationship with Louis XIV eventually deteriorated towards the end of the 1670s. The latter, in search of a more regular life, will eventually replace her with Madame de Maintenon.

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