Jean Étienne Liotard (1702-1789), Portrait of... Lot 40

Jean Étienne Liotard (1702-1789), Portrait of Madame d'Epinay, 1751-1752, pastel on paper, 48.5x38 cm Bibliography: Ruth Plaut-Weinreb, Eagle in a Gauze Cage: Louise d'Epinay Femme de Lettres, ed. AMS Press, New York, 1993, fig. 1, ill.; Ruth Plaut-Weinreb, Double Vision: Jean-Etienne Liotard's Portraits of Louise d'Epinay, in The Past as Prologue, Essays to Celebrate the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of ASECS, ed. by Carla H. Hay with Syndy M. Conger, publ. for the American society for eighteenth-century studies, 1995, p. 391, ill.; Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, Unicorn Press, London, 2006, p. 345 Provenance: Comte de Ségur (Collection Château de Méry-sur-Oise); Sale Palais Galliera, Paris, March 11, 1975, no. 4; Famille d'Epinay, then remained in the family to this day Exhibition: Madame d'Epinay: 1726-1783, a woman in the Age of Enlightenment, Épinay-sur-Seine, Hôtel de Ville, 1983, 19.xi.-4.xii.1983, cat. Pierre-Marie Tyl, no. 68 We thank Madame Renée Loche for her help in writing this notice. Note: This pastel must have been executed during the artist's stay in Paris between 1751 and 1752 and not in Geneva as suggested by Ruth Plaut-Weinreb This work by the famous Geneva pastellist Jean Etienne Liotard is the portrait of Madame Louise La Live d'Epinay (1726-1783). Remained in the family since its creation in the 18th century and known only from a mediocre photograph in the archives, this drawing could be attributed thanks to our research and the help of the referring expert. We will have the pleasure of offering this unpublished work at auction on March 15. Madame Louise La Live d'Epinay, born Pétronille de Tardieu d'Esclavelles in 1726 in Valenciennes, is a woman of letters of the 18th century. She was a prolific writer, who left behind an abundant private correspondence, and was ahead of her time and the originator of several literary salons. After an unhappy marriage, 2 children and a life in the castle of la Chevrette near Epinay-sur-Seine, she obtained the separation of property because of adultery with her husband and joined Paris in 1749. There she frequented the literary salons and met Jean-Jacques Rousseau with whom she had dynamic intellectual exchanges that led to a mutual esteem. Rousseau will write about her in his confessions: "She was kind, witty, talented; she was certainly a good acquaintance to make. [...] Madame d'Epinay, to whom nature had given, along with a very demanding temperament, excellent qualities [...]"1 Having become Rousseau's benefactress, she had the Hermitage built for him in the Montmorency valley, where the writer began writing The New Heloise. In 1757, Mme d'Epinay and Rousseau fell out and Rousseau left the Hermitage for good. During the same year, she left for Geneva to be treated by the famous doctor Théodore Tronchin. This is how Madame d'Epinay commissioned Liotard to paint her portrait to thank him for his care, a portrait that is now in the Museum of Art and History in Geneva: it is a famous pastel, in which we see Madame d'Epinay, looking mischievous, with a finger on her chin, casually holding a book with the other hand. The physical similarities between our portrait and the one in the MAH have allowed us to confirm the identity of the person represented. During her stay in Geneva, Madame d'Epinay rubbed shoulders with the cultural and social high society of the city and made François Pierre Pictet (1728-1798) appear as Moulineaux in his verse tale Le Cadran de l'amour 2 . Thus, one could assume that our pastel was executed during this period, between 1757 and 1759. However, a few years earlier, the artist also made numerous stays in Paris. It is therefore highly probable, in view of the young face represented, that the famous portraitist from Geneva met Madame d'Epinay at this period and drew her in Paris around 1751-1752. 1Jean Jacques Rousseau, Confessions, Charpentier, Paris, 1862, p. 336 2 Pictet family archives online, https://www.archivesfamillepictet.ch, accessed February 13, 2023