Étienne-François, duc de Choiseul- Stainsville at his Desk (1719 - 1785)

Étienne-François duc de Choiseul (1719-1785) was one of the pre-eminent statesmen of the 18th century. His early rise was thanks to his friendship with Madame de Pompadour, but he soon proved himself a skilful diplomat and was appointed ambassador to both Rome (1753-1757) and Vienna (1757-1758). He was created a duke after successfully steering French foreign affairs during the Seven Years’ War, and was made Secretary of State for War and the Navy, but with the loss of Madame de Pompadour’s protection following her death in 1764 and his subsequent opposition to the new favourite, Madame du Barry, Louis XV banished him from Paris and Versailles in 1770. Retiring for several years to his country estate at Chanteloup, where he wrote his memoirs and entertained numerous visitors, he was permitted to return to Paris by Louis XVI in 1774, but was not given any further appointments. He died deeply in debt.

Choiseul had moved to the Hôtel in which he is shown, in the rue Grange Batelière, Paris (now demolished), in the early 1780s in a fruitless effort to improve his finances. Although married to an immensely wealthy woman, his fall and the loss of his political positions, coupled with his huge outgoings, had a catastrophic effect. The room and its furnishings can be clearly identified in Choiseul’s inventories. Several earlier portraits by such artists as Jean-Baptiste Greuze and Louis-Michel Van Loo, show Choiseul in official and military dress, but Labille-Guiard’s painting captures the intimate ease of a man towards the end of his life, freed from the duties of office and apparently reconciled to his more modest lifestyle. The furniture is, however, of the latest style, indicating Choiseul's continued interest in collecting beautiful things.

Labille-Guiard was commissioned to paint this portrait in 1785, shortly before Choiseul died at the age of 65, and only two years after she had been admitted to the Academy, alongside Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, with whom she is often compared. She had her own studio where she taught nine female students, part of her continuing efforts to address inequalities suffered by women artists. She specialised in direct and candid portraits of the court, often depicted half-length and placed in simple interiors, as in this painting. Labille-Guiard did not show this portrait at the Salon, probably because Choiseul had previously been disgraced and because her portraits of the King's daughters proved to be more popular.

Phillippa Plock, 2012

Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)

1460 x 1140
Approx 1650 z 1110 - sight

Signature & date

signed and dated, lower left: Labille Mme Guiard 1786

Labels

Vte d'Harcourt
[Rue de Conservatoire?]
Duc de Choiseul
LG
Label
on verso of frame, handwritten blue edged label

..ev...
Bois...
Rue de C...
9 Mai 55
Label
on verso of frame, torn handwritten label

EMBALLAGE
TRANSPORT D'OBJETS D'ART
GOUGEO
24 BIS, RUE DOM[BASIE?]
[handwritten text....]
Printed label
on verso of frame

[211217?]
Label
on verso of frame, handwritten blue edged label

MINISTERE DE L'EDUCATION NATIONALE
REUNION DES MUSEES NATIONAUX
CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES
EXPOSITION Marie Antoinette
AUTEUR Labille Guiard
Titre de l'oeuvre Duc de Choiseul
Proprietaire
No du catalogue 294 bis
Printed label
on verso of frame, printed and handwritten label

CHE...
EMBA...
[illegible writing]
5 Rue de la N
Printed label
on verso of frame, oval red edged label, obscured by another label

[...illegible handwriting] 85
EXPOSITION d
CHENUE, EMBALLEUR
de Tableaux et Objets d'art
[?address] PARIS
Nom
Titre
[illegible handwriting]
Printed label
on verso of frame, printed and handwritten label

30
Label
on verso of frame, blue edged handwritten label

...UE
EMBALLEUR
[illegible handwriting]
[address] PARIS
Printed label
on verso of frame, torn oval red edged label

Provenance

• Commissioned by Étienne-François, duc de Choiseul (b.1719, d.1785) in 1785; inherited by his nephew's son-in-law Jacques Philippe de Choiseul (b.1727, d.1789); by descent to his daughter Marie-Stéphanie de Choiseul (b.1763, d.1861); by descent to her daughter Marguerite de Marnier (b.1807, d.1888); by descent to her daughter Marie de Fitz-James (b.1831, d.1905); by descent to her daughter Marguerite-Armande de Gontaut-Biron (b.1850, d.1953); by descent to her son Marquis d' Harcourt-Olonde, Château de St Eusoge, Bourgogne, France (b.1884, d.1970); by descent to a private collection; purchased by a Rothschild Family Trust in 2008.

Exhibition history

• 'Exposition au profit de la colonisation de l'Algérie par les Alsaciens-Lorrains', Paris, Palais Bourbon, 1874, no. 875
• 'Marie-Antoinette et son temps', Paris, Galerie Sedelmeyer, 1894, no. 117
• 'Les Etats-Unis et la France au XVIIIème siècle', Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1929, no. 94
• 'Portraits français', Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1945, no. 58
• 'Marie-Antoinette', Château de Versailles, 1955, no. 294
• 'Female Creators: Women artists from the era of Vigee Le Brun' , Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo 1 March - 8 May 2011

Collection

• Waddesdon (Rothschild Foundation)
• On loan since 2008

Bibliography

• Roger Portalis, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1, 1902, 100-118, 325-47; pp. 109-111, ill.
• Roger Portalis; Adélaïde Labille-Guiard; Paris; G Petit; 1902; p. 47, ill.
• A Linzeler, L'exposition des femmes peintres au XVIIIème siècle, Beaux Arts, 15 June 1926; p. 162
• Marie Antoinette, archiduchesse, dauphine et reine; Chateau de Versailles, 16 May - 2 November 1955; Versailles; Editions des Musées Nationaux; 1955; p. 108, no. 294
• Anne-Marie Passez; Adélaïde Labille-Guiard: 1749-1803, biographie et catalogue raisonné de son œuvre; Paris; Arts et métiers graphiques; 1973; pp. 28, 48, 164-166, ill.
• ♦; Veronique Moreau; Chanteloup: un moment de grâce autour du duc de Choiseul; Musée des Beaux-arts, Tours, 7 April - 8 July 2007; Paris; Somogy Editions d'Art; 2007; pp. 190-91, ill. pl. 10
• Alastair Laing; Étienne-François, duc de Choiseul, in retirement by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard; Selma Schwartz, Pippa Shirley, The Duc de Choiseul: Essays in honour of Mrs Charles Wrightsman, Waddesdon, Waddesdon Manor, 2009; 14-21; pp. 14-21, fig. 1
• Pierre-Francois Dayot; A public view of a private space: the bedroom of the duc de Choiseul in Paris; Selma Schwartz, Pippa Shirley, The Duc de Choiseul: Essays in honour of Mrs Charles Wrightsman, Waddesdon, Waddesdon Manor, 2009; 22-35; pp. 22-35, fig. 1
• ♦; Sotheby's Publications; Treasures/Aristocratic Heirlooms; July 2010; London; pp. 144-146
• ♦; Akiya Takahashi; Créer au féminin: Femmes artistes du siècle de Madame Vigée Le Brun; Mitsubishi Ichigokan, Tokyo, 1 March - 8 May 2011; Tokyo; Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum; 2011; pp. 134-35; 245, no. 51, ill.
• Sylvie Legrand-Rossi; Le Mobilier du Musée Nissim de Camondo; Dijon; Éditions Faton, Les Arts Décoratifs; 2012; p.174, fig. 16

Subject person

• Étienne-François, duc de Choiseul, Sitter

Person as Subject

• Choiseul, Étienne-François, duc de (b.1719, d.1785)

Subjects

• Figures/Male
• Portraits/Male
• Architecture/Buildings/Domestic
• Interiors/Domestic
• Objects/Furnishings/Desk
• Everyday Life/Solitary Pursuits/Reading & Writing
• Objects/Domestic Equipment/Candle
• Objects/Reading, Writing & Printed Matter/Stationery
• Objects/Furnishings/Wall Light or Chandelier
• Objects/Furnishings/Chair or Sofa
• Work & Occupations/Social Rank/Nobility
• Work & Occupations/Governance & Public Administration/Minister

Genres

• Portraiture/Genres