Portrait Of Johanna Lourdet, By Bon Boullogne

Portrait of Johanna Lourdet, oil on canvas (original painting), signed and dated on reverse "B. Boullogne pinxit 1687", gilt wood frame (restored), late 17th century. Sun frame included (H x W): 103 x 83 cm. Sun canvas (H x W): 81 x 64 cm. Portrait of Johanna Lourdet directed by Bon Boullogne in 1687. The young lady is dressed in the fashion of the time, corseted, dressed in silk and covered with a translucent veil. The very clear carnation, of milk, strongly contrasts with the dark background, with the brown eyes whose treatment is manifest of the XVIIe century. The left arm holds the veil while the right hand rests on a rich cushion of green velvet embroidered with gold threads which is part, like the bead bracelet holding the stole, accessories designed to stage the member. of the family in the manner of an aristocratic portrait. Johanna Lourdet belongs to the family of Anne Lourdet, the second wife of Bon Boullogne (1649-1717). According to the inscription affixed to the back of the portrait, Joanna Lourdet was born on May 2, 1668. She married in April 1686 Joseph S **** eur (illegible). Bon Boullogne Boullogne, was one of the five most famous painters of history of the end of the reign of Louis XIV. His work is particularly diversified, as much from the point of view of the genres approached as the techniques employed: sometimes he imitates the great Bolognese, sometimes realizes true pastiches of the Dutch little masters of the Golden Age. More exceptional, he realizes here a rare portrait. Bon Boullogne early showed great disposition for painting. He is thought to have helped him in his work in the Grand Galerie du Louvre. Colbert gave him the king's pension at Rome, without having competed for the price of painting at the sight of a Saint John, half-figure, whom his father had presented to him, and whom he found so well, that, by his order the painting remained in the salons of the Academy. Back in France, he was received at the Royal Academy in 1677 and, the following year, appointed professor and painter of the king. His reputation made him distinguished by Louis XIV, who gave him a pension of six hundred livres. He worked in the church of the Invalides, the palace and the chapel of Versailles, in Trianon. Most of the French painters active at the turn of the 17th century were trained in his studio. The canvas was cleaned, and a fragment of the frame reinstated.