"Portrait Of The Marquis De Tallenay, Minister Plenipotentiary, Oil On Canvas Dated 1880"
Portrait of the Marquis de Tallenay, Auguste Bonaventure born on October 15, 1795 in Besançon and died on January 3, 1863 probably in Germany (Frankfurt), displaying all his decorations and the family crest in the upper left of the work. The Marquis comes from a family from Franche-Comté, his father is Nicolas Charles Bonaventure Marquis de Tallenay, attorney general at the Parliament of Besançon. The "Marquis" family is of Spanish origin, having taken the name "Marquis" and settling in Tallenay at the time of Charles-Quint. In 1814 during the siege of Besançon by Austrian troops, Auguste, who is nineteen years old, meets by chance the Prince of Lichteinstein who commands the Austrian army, the latter seduced by his intelligence of this young man takes him under his protection. And, from the Restoration of 1814, Auguste enters the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was sent to Vienna to announce Napoleon's return from the island of Elba. He remained in that city and participated, as Talleyrand's attaché, in the following Congress. After a temporary withdrawal due to illness, his diplomatic career developed. He was successively posted to Hamburg as secretary of legation, then to Stockholm in 1827, to Brussels in 1832, chargé d'affaires to the Belgian government, then first secretary and chargé d'affaires in Rome, where he was in contact with Stendhal, and in Naples, then resident minister in Hamburg from 1839 to 1848. In April 1848, while Lamartine was Minister of Foreign Affairs, he was appointed ambassador to London by the provisional government of the Second Republic, but was not accredited by the British. In August 1848, Tallenay was appointed minister plenipotentiary in Frankfurt to the German Confederation, until 1856, when he retired. He then lived in Frankfurt as a private individual. Auguste de Tallenay received several decorations, both French and foreign: Grand Officer of the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour, Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, Grand Cross of the Order of Philip the Magnificent of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, Commander of the Order of the Conception of Portugal, Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory of Rome, Officer of the Order of Leopold. Oil on canvas in good condition, inscription on the back "Marquis de Tallenay, minister plenipotentiary, 1880", monogram GR (small restorations), dimensions without frame H77.5 cm x W59.5 cm, dimensions with frame H91.5 cm x W73 cm, later frame (small restorations). Shipping costs, please contact us.