Portrait of Charlotte Herts
Canvas 78.5 x 67 cm
Signed and dated center right Brenet / 1770
Provenance :
Collection of the model, wife of Charles-François de Casteele;
Collection of their daughter Mélanie, wife of the Comte de Puget;
Always in the family.
Our painting is an addition to the small corpus of portraits painted by Nicolas Brenet (see M. Fournier, Nicolas Guy Brenet, Paris, 2023, n°105-109, reproduced).
Marie Fournier recalls that in 1770, public commissions were declining and Brenet had completed his major commissions:
-the cycle for the church of Pont-de-Vaux in the Ain region, completed in 1769
-the commission for the Chartreuse de Montmerle in the Ain region, in 1769
-Triomphe de la Vierge for the collegiate church of Saint Pierre in Douai, completed in 1768.
It was most probably in Douai that the painter met his model (1748-1785). He produced his most ambitious portrait for her (the other three identified portraits are oval). In her beautiful pink and white dress, Charlotte Herts, soberly wearing her pearl necklace, delicately displays a simple white rose. The year of our painting is the year she married Charles François de Casteele (1748-1781) in Lille.
We would like to thank Marie Fournier for confirming the painting's authenticity.
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