Marianne Loir (1705-1783) Presumed Portrait Of Baron De Vennac

Marianne LOIR
(Paris 1705 – Paris 1783)
Presumed portrait of Jean-Jacques-Blaise Baloin de Belvèse, Baron de Vennac (?-1781)
Oil on oval canvas
H. 54.5 cm; W. 46 cm

Granddaughter of the painter and engraver Nicolas Loir, the young woman followed her brother Alexis, a pastellist and engraver, to Rome. She deepened a certainly family training, alongside Jean-François de Troy then director of the Académie de France on the spot. The vast majority of her known works can be dated between 1740 and 1770, where she practiced in a manner very close to that of Jean-Marc Nattier being the height of the Louis XV style. However, his touch is freer and the style less rococo. A truth and a sincerity emanate from his portraits whose subjects do not seem stuffy or in unreal postures. Sometimes the style of Marianne Loir is close to that of Pierre Gobert several decades her senior, some reminiscences of which are found.

The identity of our man is offered to us by a modern label stuck on the back of the work. The painting, most certainly originally rectangular, given the continuity of the paint folded over the frame, was re-lined during the first half of the 20th century. Is this label an inscription located on the back of the original canvas, then transferred? The name seems difficult to invent…

Baron de Vennac (or Venac) whose full name seems to be Jean-Jacques-Blaise Baloin de Belvèse, was an officer in the Normandy regiment and knight of the order of Saint-Louis. In 1756, he was arrested for false accusations against other officers of his regiment. They wanted to make an attempt on the life of the king... Imprisoned in Le Havre, Mont Saint-Michel, the Bastille and then in Vincennes from 1757, he ended his days in 1781 in this fortress. Apart from these elements, the life of the man remains unknown with the exception of his place of birth, Saint Chély de Belvèze, family stronghold from which the counts of Belvèse came, title carried by the father of Vennac. These elements all come from troubled sources written by the famous Latude, a prisoner with multiple escapes who wrote his memoirs.

However, our man by his uniform was indeed an officer of the Normandy regiment and wears the order of Saint-Louis. The portrait seems to have been made around 1760/65, which does not exclude the Baron de Vennac.