He is the sun whose luster never ceases to eclipse the stars.
The Perpignanais Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743) was over 60 years old when he painted, under the Regency, the young woman presumed to be Charlotte de Fleury de La Jonchère.
Adorned in a velvet dress and wrapped in a transparent muslin stole, the wife of royal treasurer Gérard Michel de La Jonchère smiles.
She guesses, perhaps, the wise balance of her pose, on the edge of darkness, on the first threshold of daylight, precisely where the flow of fabrics with ocher reflections shines with its most golden glow.
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Hyacinthe Rigaud, the king of portraiture
Between the chiaroscuro of the canvas and the warm display of textiles, it is difficult to remove any hint of Flemish sap from the painting.
And with good reason: it is a fiber common to the three musketeers of the Royal Academy who, armed with their brushes, brought the French art of portrait to the highest point, between the last quarter of the 17th century and the first mid-18th century.
François de Troy (1645-1730) and Nicolas de Largillierre
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