THE PROPERTY OF A CONTINENTAL FAMILY OF TITLE The following eight paintings together with the three pastels (lots 43-53) already existed as a group in 1928 when in the possession of Baron Alfred de Jacquier de Rosée. In that year five of the children's portraits (lots 43, 47-50) were exhibited under the heading 'de la Famille d'Ormesson' in the Largillière exhibition held in 1928 at the Palais des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris [Petit Palais]. The complete series of eight portraits represent the head of a family, his wife and seven children, and each, with the exception of the double portrait (lot 43), carries an inscription and date probably copied from the artist's own inscription on the original canvas. The erroneous tradition which falsely associates the sitters with the d'Ormesson family may arise from a confusion of identity of the mother of the children depicted in the present series of portraits, a certain Marie-Marguerite Lefèvre formerly assumed to be a member of the Lefèvre d'Ormesson family. In reality she married Yves-Joseph Pommyer (1665-after 1739), Président Trésorier de France au Bureau de Finances d'Alençon, and later Secrétaire du Roi. They are known to have had seven children: François, Yves-Joseph-Charles, Merry, Marie-Thérèse, Yves-Simon, Marie-Elisabeth and François-Emmanuel, all of whom are depicted in the following series of portraits together with their mother and father. Yves-Joseph Pommyer, from the Loire Valley, was related through his father to some of the most powerful political figures of the seventeenth century including Daniel-François Voysin de la Noiraye (1654-1717), Chancelier de France and Premier Avocat général au Parlement, Chrétien-François de Lamoignon, son of Président Guillaume de Lamoignon, the Bignon family, Dongois, chief clerk of the Parlement, Bornigales, Maître des Comptes, Président Boulanger and Nicoläy, Premier Président des Comptes. The identification of the sitters is further confirmed by the fact that the series of pictures is thought to have been inherited circa 1911 from La Marquise de Pommyer de Rougemont, whose husband predeceased her circa 1880 in Paris. We thank Dominique Brême for his assistance in the compilation of this and the following catalogue entries.
Nicolas de Largillière (1656-1746)

Details
Nicolas de Largillière (1656-1746)

Portrait of François Pommyer (1703-1779) and Yves-Joseph- Charles Pommyer (1703-before 1777), half lengths, wearing open jackets and wraps, playing with a King Charles Spaniel

29½ x 36¼in. (75 x 92cm.)

In a near (?) contemporary carved and gilded frame
Provenance
[Probably] Yves-Joseph-Charles Pommyer
[Probably] Jacques-Jean-Baptiste-Simon Pommyer, and by descent to the Marquise de Pommyer de Rougemont, widow of the Marquis de Pommyer (said to have died circa 1880 in Paris)
Baron Alfred de Rosée by 1928, and by descent
Literature
Le Gaulois Artistique, II, 22, June 1928, p. 257
G. de Lastic, Nicolas de Largillière: heurs et malheurs d'un chef-d'oeuvre, L'Oeil, 365, Dec. 1985, p. 44
Exhibited
Paris, Palais des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris [Petit Palais], N. de Largillière, May-June 1928, 1st ed., p. 37, no. 114, and pl. XI; 2nd ed. p. 42, no. 129, and pl. XIII

Lot Essay

François Pommyer, Écuyer and Seigneur de Rougemont, was baptised on 23 March 1703 in the church of Saint-Merry in Paris. Son of Yves-Joseph Pommyer and Marie-Marguerite Lefèvre, his godparents included François Cadet, Secrétaire du Roi, and Marguerite Langlois wife of the Procureur au Grand Conseil Jean Baptiste Lefèvre. As his father before him, François Pommyer became Trésorier général de France au Bureau des Finances d'Alençon, and married Elisabeth de Lorne, daughter of the Secrétaire du Roi François de Lorne and Anne Papillon. He acceded to his father-in law's post on 2 March 1731. The witnesses present at his taking of office were Louis Mettra, Curate of Saint-Merry who had already officiated at a similar function for his father in 1719 (see lot 44), Charles-Pierre Nay, Conseiler au Parlement, and Pierre Tauxier, Conseiler des Aides. François Pommyer died in office in 1779 and was replaced by Joseph-Jacques de Corsembleu.

Very little is known of the second sitter, François Pommyer's twin brother Yves-Joseph-Charles Pommyer, also Écuyer and Seigneur de Rougemont. He became an Avocat au Parlement and later married Marie Elizabeth Huart. He died before 1677 according to the act of marriage of his eldest son Jacques-Jean-Baptiste-Simon Pommyer, dated 11th April 1777 (Paris, Archives Nationales, XLVIII 240).

Yves-Joseph-Charles Pommyer and Marie-Elisabeth Huart are known to have had four children. The eldest aforementioned Jacques-Jean-Baptiste-Simon Pommyer married Elisabeth Sophie de Lorne, who was probably related to her husband's aunt Elisabeth de Lorne, wife of François Pommyer (see above). The company present at this marriage was particularly illustrious and included as witnesses Louis-François-Joseph de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, Cardinal Rohan, Bishop of Strasbourg, and d'Aligre Premier Président du Parlement. Jacques-Jean-Baptiste-Simon Pommyer died in 1790, and his posthumous inventory dated 8 January 1791 clearly demonstrates the Pommyer family's interest in art (Paris, Archives Nationales, LVIII 569). Included in a list of various framed engravings and paintings is a portrait of the 'widow' Pommyer de Rougemont. Although Dr Brême does not believe the latter can be identified with any of the present portraits, a group of 'trois tableaux peints...dans leurs différentes bordures doré' of which 'il n'a été fait aucune prisée atendu que ce sont des portraits de famille' may indeed refer to the present series. Indeed it is highly probable that the portraits descended through Jacques-Jean-Baptiste-Simon Pommyer's branch of the family, for of all the children depicted, his father Yves-Joseph-Charles was the only one to produce issue, and Jacques-Jean-Baptiste-Simon became his father's heir.

Three further children were born of the marriage of Yves-Joseph-Charles Pommyer and Marie-Elisabeth Huart. Yves-Joseph-Charles, named after his father, became Écuyer and Directeur des Fermes and married Marie-Brigitte-Louise Landru. The couple lived in Paris in the rue Verrerie in the parish of Saint-Jean-en-Grêve (Paris, Archives Nationales, LVIII 576). Nicolas-François-Bonaventure Pommyer, the third son, was a Canon at Rheims, Grand Vicaire of Bordeaux and Predicateur du Roi. He enjoyed a privileged relationship with his uncles Merry Pommyer, senior Abbé du chapître of Rheims cathedral (see lot 46), and François-Emmanuel Pommyer, honorary Dean of the Metropolitan church of Rheims (see lots 50 and 53). The only surviving daughter of the union, Marie-Françoise-Elisabeth Pommyer, married Marie-Pierre-Honoré Dincourt, Chevalier Seigneur de Fréchancourt (near Amiens) and ancien Mousquetaire de la Garde du Roi, by whom she had one daughter Marie-Jeanne-Charlotte.

A preparatory compositional drawing for the present lot, formerly in the possession of O. Bateman Brown was sold at Sotheby's, London, 1 Dec. 1964, lot 102, illustrated. The drawing, now in a private French collection, drawn in black and white chalk on buff paper (252 x 332mm.), whilst emphasizing the treatment of the drapery, dog and hands, appears to differ in some of the facial details from the picture as finally executed.

Unlike the rest of the series the present portrait does not bear an inscription and date on the reverse of the canvas and must have been executed at a date earlier than 1722, the date of the other children's portraits. Taking into consideration the style of the work and the age of the sitters the work must be dated circa 1710, although the frame would appear to be slightly later in style.

The present picture is to be included in Dr. Dominique Brême's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the work of Nicolas de Largillière

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