La Belle Gabrielle Restaurant In Suresnes. Henry IV Seduces Gabrielle d'Estrées.

Gouache on paper. 19.3 x 24.5 cm visible, in a 37.8 x 43.8 cm frame. Old mention "Restaurant de la Belle Gabrielle, Suresnes" in ink on the backboard of the frame. In the legends of Suresnes, it is often heard that Henry IV, a lover of local wine, had owned a property in Suresnes, where he liked to come to rest and court the young Gabrielle d'Estrées who would become his mistress and favorite (they had three children together). Celebrating this legend, a café-restaurant-guinguette was named "La Belle Gabrielle" in the 19th century. It was located, until the Second World War, on the Seine riverfront, at the exit of the Suresnes bridge, on the Quai Gallieni (today, the nearby Avenue de la Belle Gabrielle recalls the memory of the place). The guinguettes on the banks of the Seine in Suresnes were in vogue in the second half of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th, Parisians loved to come and have fun there. Inside "La Belle Gabrielle", a large fresco, representing King Henry IV courting Gabrielle d'Estrées, adorned a wall. It is reproduced in the book described below in the bibliography, and it is a well-finished preparatory drawing of this fresco that we present here. Bibliography: Guy Noël and Michel Hebert, Suresnes, collection "Mémoire en Images", in Rennes, Alan Sutton, 1995, page 24. Ref. A10-127