Portrait of a Young Man and His Tutor

1685

Nicolas de Largillierre

Artist, French, 1656 - 1746

An older man, a young man, and a dog stand on a verandah that opens onto a landscape in this vertical portrait painting. The men are pale skinned and shown from the knees up. The older man stands on the left with his head turned to look off in that direction. Long, silver-gray hair frames his flushed face. Bushy brows curve over his dark gray eyes, and deep creases line his long nose. His plump pink lips are closed between a thin white mustache above and a dot of a beard below. A long white collar hangs down the chest of his lead-gray jacket. His right sleeve, on our left, is turned back to show the cuff of a puffy-sleeved white shirt underneath. That hand holds gleaming velvet-black fabric, which is gathered at his waist and falls to his knees. His other hand rests on the shoulder of the young man to our right. That man’s oval face is framed by thick, shoulder-length, curly, chestnut-brown hair. He gazes at us with amber eyes under slender brows. He has flushed cheeks, a narrow nose, and coral-red lips are slightly parted. A bright orange ribbon tied under a white brocaded ascot around his neck is wider than his face. His russet-brown jacket is unbuttoned to show an embroidered gold and azure-blue vest underneath. A wide pink sash is fastened around his left elbow, on our right, and billowing white sleeves extend from the shorter sleeves of the jacket. He holds his right hand, to our left, palm up with his index finger extended toward the dog in front of him, who has turned to look up. Shown from the back, the dog has long, glossy, coffee-brown fur with some white streaks. The young man’s other hand rests on a chipped stone balustrade next to him. The artist signed and dated the work as if he had carved the front face of the balustrade to read, “N. De Largillierre F. 1685.” Two stone columns rise to either side of the young man and give way to a tree-filled landscape under a muted blue sky above.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 37

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 146 x 114.8 cm (57 1/2 x 45 3/16 in.)
    framed: 147.3 x 115.9 cm (58 x 45 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1961.9.26

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Marenzi [Marenzy] de Tollenaere, Bruges;[1] (his sale, Hauw, Bruges, 20 June 1828, no. 63, as Le Dauphin de France avec son précepteur M. De Bossuet);[2] Baron François de Marenzi-de Marensfeld [d. 1845], Bruges; (his estate sale, Moulaert, Bruges, 13 May 1850, and days following, no. 165);[3] presumably bought in and then by inheritance to the Dowager Madame de Doncquers (or Donckers), Bruges, as of 1873; Sénateur Prosper Crabbe [1827-1889] and his wife [née Clémence Allard], Brussells; (his estate sale, Galerie Sedelmeyer, Paris, 12 June 1890, no. 38, as Bossuet et le Grand Dauphin); Antoine-Alfred-Agénor, 11th duc de Gramont [1851-1925], Paris; (his estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 22 May 1925, no. 10, as Bossuet et le Grand Dauphin); Joseph Fuller Feder [d. 1944],[4] New York; by inheritance to his widow, Edith Mosler Feder [d. 1960]; (French & Company, New York), by 1954;[5]; sold 1955 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] Julia Armstrong-Totten, senior research editor at the Project for the Study of Collecting and Provenance, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, provided information about the painting's Marenzi and Feder provenance; Louis de Strycker researched the histories of the Marenzi, Crabbe, and de Doncquers families; and Sophie Pietri drew attention to Prosper Crabbe's patronage of Charles Baudelaire.
[2] Getty Provenance Index databases, catalogue B-468a.
[3] "Catalogue d'une belle, riche et nombreuse collection de tableaux des écoles flamande, hollandaise, allemande, française et italienne...le tout ayant formé le beau cabinet de feu Messire Baron F. de Marenzi-de Marensfeld, en sonvivant rentier et propriétaire à Bruges, dont la vente publique aura lieu en la maison mortuaire, rue de Terre-Neuve, section A 6, No 6, au dit Bruges" (No 165. LARGILLIERE (N. DE). Le dauphin de France avec son précepteur le grand Bossuet; figures de grandeur naturelle. Ce beau tableau est d'une frappante vérité, les draperies sont jetées avec ampleur; un grand chien à tâches blanches et brunes est sur le devant; ce délicieux morceaux [sic] réunit à une exécution habile la plus grande transparence. H. 1 M. 45 C. L. 1 M. 14 C. T.).
[4] According to his New York Times obituary, 12 May 1944, Joseph Fuller Feder was a private banker and yachtsman.
[5] An annotation on the back of the photograph of the painting in the Frick Art Reference Library, New York ("Largillière 524-2a"), dated 7 February 1947, corroborates the fact that Feder's widow inherited the portrait. Mitchell Samuels, of French & Company, in a letter to John Walker of 31 March 1954 (in NGA curatorial files), described the painting as one "that we have had for some time" and that "for nearly thirty years...was in this country."
After the 2009 publication of this note in the NGA systematic catalogue, the estate of Joseph McCrindle (1923-2008), who was Mrs. Feder's grandson, kindly provided the Gallery with an early 1950s photograph of the painting hanging in the Feder apartment at The Sherry-Netherland on Fifth Avenue, New York, and a letter of 23 January 1954 from French & Company to Mrs. Feder, indicating they had the painting in storage for her. The letter also includes a proposal to purchase the painting and other items from Mrs. Feder.
[6] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/131.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1935

  • Troisième Centenaire de L'Académie Française, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1935, no. 266, repro. as Bossuet et Le Dauphin.

1981

  • Largillierre and the Eighteenth-Century Portrait, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1981, no. 15, repro. as Portrait of Jacques-Bossuet and Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Duc du Maine.

2003

  • Nicolas de Largillierre, 1656-1746, Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, 2003-2004, no. 42, repro.

Bibliography

1893

  • Mantz, Paul. "Largillière (1er article)." Gazette des Beaux-Arts ser. 3 (August 1893): 94-95.

1925

  • Roger-Milès, Léon. "Les grandes ventes prochaines: la collection Lehmann. Les ventes Durighiello, duc de Gramont et Becq de Fouquières." Bulletin de l'Art (supp. to Revue de l'Art) 47, no. 718 (May 1925): 170, 172, 174.

1928

  • Pascal, Georges. Largillierre. Paris, 1928: 44-45, 58, no. 33, pl. 27.

1935

  • Gillet, Louis. "L'exposition de l'Académie Française à la galerie Mazarine." Revue des Deux Mondes (July 1935): 228.

1938

  • Vitely, André. Bossuet, essai d'iconographie. Mâcon, 1938: 307-310.

1947

  • Florisoone, Michel. Le dix-huitème siècle: la peinture française. Paris, 1947: 72, repro.

1954

  • Blunt, Anthony. Art and Architecture in France: 1500 to 1700. London and Baltimore, 1954: 278, 288 n. 108, pl. 188.

  • The Connoisseur 133, no. 538 (June 1954): 233, cover, color repro.

1956

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 114, no. 43, repro.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 347, repro.

1964

  • Smith, Joan van Rensselaer. "Nicolas de Largillierre: A Painter of the Régence." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and Saint Paul, 1964: 125-126, fig. 33, pl. 9.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 72.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 63, repro.

1970

  • Blunt, Anthony. Art and Architecture in France: 1500 to 1700. 2nd ed. Baltimore, 1970: 394, 395, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 188, 189, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 189, 328, repro.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 292-293, fig. 262.

1982

  • Lastic, Georges de. "Largillierre et ses modèles: problèmes d'iconographie." L'Oeil 323 (June 1982): 24, 26, repro.

1983

  • Lastic, Georges de. "Propos sur Nicolas de Largilliere en marge d'une exposition." Revue de l'Art 61 (1983): 76, 81 n. 22.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 326, no. 432, color repro.

  • Rosenfeld, Myra Nan. "Largillierre: problèmes de méthodologie." Revue de l'Art 66 (1984): 69, 73 n. 21, 70, repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 220, repro.

1987

  • Rosenberg, Pierre, and Marion C. Stewart. French Paintings 1500-1825: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. San Francisco, 1987: 209.

1988

  • Blunt, Anthony. Art and Architecture in France: 1500-1700. 4th ed., reprint with revisions. Harmondsworth, 1988: 394, 395, repro.

1992

  • Rosenfeld, Myra Nan. "La culture de Largillierre." Revue de l'art 92 (1992): 44, 47, 51 n. 16, 48, repro.

1994

  • Mérot, Alain. La peinture française au XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 1994: 207, 208, repro.

1995

  • Corp, Edward. "James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick: A New Identification for a Portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud." Apollo 141, no. 400 (June 1995): 53-54.

1997

  • Brême, Dominique. "Nicolas de Largillierre, portraitiste fulgurant." In L'art du portrait sous Louiv XIV. Dossier de l'art 37 (January 1997): 48.

1998

  • Brême, Dominique. "Largillierre, un géant retrouvé." Dossier de l'art 50 (September 1998): 12, 46.

1999

  • Blunt, Anthony. Art and Architecture in France: 1500-1700. 5th ed. New Haven and London, 1999: 267, color repro., 268, repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 183, no. 144, color repro.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 66, 293-298, color repro.

2012

  • Grasselli, Margaret M., and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., eds. The McCrindle Gift: A Distinguished Collection of Drawings and Watercolors. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2012: 4, 5, 12 n. 13, 14.

Inscriptions

lower right: N. De / Largillierre / F. 1685.

Wikidata ID

Q20177676

You may be interested in

Loading Results