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Portrait de Madame Hubert Robert (1745-1821), née Anne-Gabrielle Soos
Details
MARIE-SUZANNE ROSLIN (PARIS 1735-1772)
Portrait de Madame Hubert Robert (1745-1821), née Anne-Gabrielle Soos
signé et daté 'Peint par / Mde Roslin 1771' (en bas, à droite)
pastel sur papier, marouflé sur toile et monté sur châssis
70,5 x 53,9 cm (27 ¾ x 21 ¼ in.)
Portrait de Madame Hubert Robert (1745-1821), née Anne-Gabrielle Soos
signé et daté 'Peint par / Mde Roslin 1771' (en bas, à droite)
pastel sur papier, marouflé sur toile et monté sur châssis
70,5 x 53,9 cm (27 ¾ x 21 ¼ in.)
Provenance
Thibaudeau, comte de la Béraudière (1808-1884) (selon vente de 1889, voir infra).
Georges Mühlbacher (-1906) ; sa vente, galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 15-18 mai 1899, lot 244.
Arthur Georges Veil-Picard (1854-1944).
Confisqué auprès de celui-ci à la Banque de France (coffre 63) par le Devisenschutzkommando suite à l'occupation allemande de la France (ERR inv. WP 106), Paris ;
Transféré au Jeu de Paume, Paris, le 29 octobre 1944 ;
Transféré aux mines de sel d’Altaussee, Autriche, le 27 octobre 1944 ;
Retrouvé par les Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section et transféré au Munich Central Collecting Point, Bavière (MCCP inv. 429⁄3), le 24 juin 1945 ;
Retourné en France, le 23 mai 1946 ;
Restitué aux ayants droit d'Arthur Georges Veil-Picard, le 20 décembre 1946 ;
Puis par descendance dans la famille.
Georges Mühlbacher (-1906) ; sa vente, galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 15-18 mai 1899, lot 244.
Arthur Georges Veil-Picard (1854-1944).
Confisqué auprès de celui-ci à la Banque de France (coffre 63) par le Devisenschutzkommando suite à l'occupation allemande de la France (ERR inv. WP 106), Paris ;
Transféré au Jeu de Paume, Paris, le 29 octobre 1944 ;
Transféré aux mines de sel d’Altaussee, Autriche, le 27 octobre 1944 ;
Retrouvé par les Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section et transféré au Munich Central Collecting Point, Bavière (MCCP inv. 429⁄3), le 24 juin 1945 ;
Retourné en France, le 23 mai 1946 ;
Restitué aux ayants droit d'Arthur Georges Veil-Picard, le 20 décembre 1946 ;
Puis par descendance dans la famille.
Literature
P.- A. Lemoisne, ‘Exposition de cents pastels et de bustes du XVIIIe siècle’, Les Arts, 1908, p. 29.
G. Babin, ‘Cent Pastels du dix-huitième siècle’, L'Illustration, 23 mai 1908, ill. p. 4.
G.-W. Lundberg, ‘Madame Roslin-konstnärens hustru som själv var målarinna’, Idun, 1934, pp. 8-10.
G. W. Lundberg, Roslin: liv och verk, Malmö, 1957, I p. 142 (‘Portrait de A.-G. Sous’).
X. Salmon, J.-P. Babelon, Les pastels, Paris-Versailles,1997, p. 124.
N. Jeffares, Dictionnary of pastellists before 1800, Londres, 2006, version en ligne, n°J.63.144.
G. Faroult, C. Voiriot. Hubert Robert, 1733-1808 : un peintre visionnaire, cat. exp., Paris, musée du Louvre, 2016, fig. 2.
S. Catala, Hubert Robert, de Rome à Paris, cat. exp., Paris, Galerie Coatalem, 2021, p. 108.
C. Voiriot, ‘Pour une iconographie du peintre Hubert Robert (1733-1808) et de son épouse’, BSHAF, 2017, Paris, 2024, pp. 113-117.
G. Babin, ‘Cent Pastels du dix-huitième siècle’, L'Illustration, 23 mai 1908, ill. p. 4.
G.-W. Lundberg, ‘Madame Roslin-konstnärens hustru som själv var målarinna’, Idun, 1934, pp. 8-10.
G. W. Lundberg, Roslin: liv och verk, Malmö, 1957, I p. 142 (‘Portrait de A.-G. Sous’).
X. Salmon, J.-P. Babelon, Les pastels, Paris-Versailles,1997, p. 124.
N. Jeffares, Dictionnary of pastellists before 1800, Londres, 2006, version en ligne, n°J.63.144.
G. Faroult, C. Voiriot. Hubert Robert, 1733-1808 : un peintre visionnaire, cat. exp., Paris, musée du Louvre, 2016, fig. 2.
S. Catala, Hubert Robert, de Rome à Paris, cat. exp., Paris, Galerie Coatalem, 2021, p. 108.
C. Voiriot, ‘Pour une iconographie du peintre Hubert Robert (1733-1808) et de son épouse’, BSHAF, 2017, Paris, 2024, pp. 113-117.
Exhibited
Paris, galerie Georges Petit, Exposition de cent pastels du XVIIIe siècle, 1908, n°105, pl. 89.
Paris, Hôtel des Négociants en objets d'art, tableaux & curiosités, Explication des peintures, gravures, miniatures et autres ouvrages de femmes peintres du XVIIIe siècle : exposés au profit de l’Appui Maternel (Hôpital Tarnier), 14 mai-6 juin 1926, n°87.
Paris, galerie Jean Charpentier, Exposition de pastels français des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, au profit du musée de La Tour à Saint-Quentin, 23 mai-26 juillet 1927, n°125, pl. LXXX 116.
Paris, Hôtel des Négociants en objets d'art, tableaux & curiosités, Explication des peintures, gravures, miniatures et autres ouvrages de femmes peintres du XVIIIe siècle : exposés au profit de l’Appui Maternel (Hôpital Tarnier), 14 mai-6 juin 1926, n°87.
Paris, galerie Jean Charpentier, Exposition de pastels français des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, au profit du musée de La Tour à Saint-Quentin, 23 mai-26 juillet 1927, n°125, pl. LXXX 116.
Engraved
par Goupil en 1899 (Voiriot, op. cit., 2024, fig. 2).
Further Details
MARIE-SUZANNE ROSLIN, PORTRAIT OF MADAM HUBERT ROBERT 1745-1821), BORN ANNE-GABRIELLE SOOS, PASTEL, SIGNED AND DATED
This impressive pastel of remarkable freshness, long preserved in the prestigious collection of the Comte de La Béraudière until the end of the nineteenth century, was executed by the miniaturist and pastellist Marie-Suzanne Roslin. Alexandre Roslin’s (1718-1793) wife, Marie-Suzanne Giroust trained under the celebrated Quentin de La Tour (1704-1788), heir to the pastel tradition introduced to Paris by the Venetian Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757). She later continued her apprenticeship in the studio of Marie-Joseph Vien (1716-1809). It was there, in 1754, that she met the Swedish portraitist, an associate of her teacher, whom she married in 1759, Monsieur Roslin.
Admission to the Academy and the Salon of 1771: a path of excellence despite constraints
During the Age of Enlightenment, while philosophical and social contexts appeared to offer new prospects for women, the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture maintained strict rules of decorum that barred them from life-drawing studios. Women remained confined to portraiture and still life and were excluded from history painting. Institutional exclusion was explicit: from its foundation in 1648 by Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642) until its dissolution in 1793, the Academy admitted only fifteen women among more than five hundred male members (O. Fidière, Les femmes artistes à l’Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, Paris, 1885, p. 8).
In 1770, a quota limiting admission to four women was imposed, and Madame Roslin succeeded in being counted among them. One month after Anne Vallayer-Coster (1744-1818), she had the honor of being received and admitted on the same day, 1 September 1770. Her reception piece, the Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Pigalle in pastel, was exhibited at the Salon the following year, alongside 'several portraits under the same number', confirming her reputation (Explication des peintures, sculptures et gravures des messieurs de l’Académie royale, Paris, 1771, no. 151). Diderot (1713-1784) judged her a finer pastellist than her husband, and the critics acknowledged the female artistic competence on display: 'Several other portraits by this same artist [Mme Roslin], as well as the works of Mlle Vallayer, prove that the art of studying still or living nature and rendering its truths with feeling may be cultivated by women with equal success as by men' (L’Avant-Coureur, weekly paper, Paris, 23 September 1771, p. 601). Among these works, the present pastel, signed and dated the same year, may well have been shown.
Identification of the sitter: a previously unknown image of Hubert Robert’s wife
The elegant woman depicted by Marie-Suzanne Roslin is none other than Anne-Gabrielle Soos (1745-1821), wife of Hubert Robert (1733-1808). Of Lorraine origin like her husband, she was educated at the convent of the Filles de la Croix de Nesle in Picardy and married the painter on 6 July 1767, one year after his admission to the Academy. Their union produced four children. Described by contemporaries as a very beautiful woman, she remained constantly at his side, 'accompanying him in social life, sharing his friendships, and occasionally traveling with him to Méréville' (Faroult, Voiriot, op. cit., 2016, p. 31).
Until now, her likeness was known only through four drawings executed by her husband. A first sheet in red chalk and black stone shows her playing the hurdy-gurdy (Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie de Besançon, inv. D. 2916), while a profile drawing in pencil, dated around 1773, is preserved in a sketchbook recently acquired by the Louvre (fig. 1; inv. R.F. 55311, fol. 4). Two further sheets, still in private hands, complete this group: one represents her, as in the present pastel, absorbed in needlework; the other, also in red chalk, shows a moment of tenderness with her daughter Adélaïde (fig. 2; S. Catala, op. cit., nos. 60–61). In this context, the present portrait assumes particular importance, as it constitutes the only fully realized, finished representation known of this discreet woman. The pastel had previously been known only through a black-and-white photograph from the Exposition de Cent Pastels held in 1908 at the Galerie Georges Petit.
Depicted half-length, Madame Hubert Robert wears her hair dressed high and powdered, adorned with flowers, feathers, and a rosette, with only a few strands falling loosely at the sides. Her pink satin gown is trimmed with white lace flounces and embellished with blue bows that echo the tones of the fabric she is embroidering. Seated before a work frame, she embodies the domestic virtues then associated with women of quality, reinforcing the careful and flattering image offered by the pastel: creamy complexion, subtly flushed cheeks, and richly rendered textiles.
Madame Roslin puts into practice the teaching of La Tour, adopting his subtlety of tonal nuance achieved through a deliberately restrained palette. The three-quarter pose, the gentle, dreamy gaze directed into the distance, and the slight smile recall the Portrait of Marie-Louise Bouret de Vézelay, née Corbie d’Heurnonville, painted in oil by her husband in the same year (private collection; M. Olausson et al., Alexander Roslin, exh. cat., Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, 2007, no. 48).
Madame Roslin showed a particular fondness for portraying women from artistic circles. A testament to this is her pastel of Madame Charles-Pierre Coustou, recently sold at auction (Jeffares, 2006, op. cit., no. J.63.109), the wife of an architect from an illustrious family of sculptors, whose portrait was painted by Alexandre Roslin. She is shown engaged in another everyday gesture of high society at the time—pouring chocolate into a saucer to cool it before drinking it. This work is dated the same year as Madame Hubert Robert, 1771.
The artist’s career was cut short by her premature death on 30 August 1772 after a long illness, limiting her output to some twenty pastels. Yet, as a nineteenth-century critic observed, 'it is permissible to believe that, had she lived, Madame Roslin would have secured an honorable place within the French School' (O. Fidière, 1885, op. cit., p. 32). This portrait of a painter’s wife by a woman artist thus constitutes a unique testimony to their assertion within the artistic milieu of the second half of the century, while also reflecting the charm and grace that characterized their presence in enlightened circles. Admired early on, the work was widely reproduced in numerous copies and miniatures from the late eighteenth century throughout the nineteenth century (Voiriot, 2024, op. cit., pp. 116–117, figs. 3, 4 and 5).
This impressive pastel of remarkable freshness, long preserved in the prestigious collection of the Comte de La Béraudière until the end of the nineteenth century, was executed by the miniaturist and pastellist Marie-Suzanne Roslin. Alexandre Roslin’s (1718-1793) wife, Marie-Suzanne Giroust trained under the celebrated Quentin de La Tour (1704-1788), heir to the pastel tradition introduced to Paris by the Venetian Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757). She later continued her apprenticeship in the studio of Marie-Joseph Vien (1716-1809). It was there, in 1754, that she met the Swedish portraitist, an associate of her teacher, whom she married in 1759, Monsieur Roslin.
Admission to the Academy and the Salon of 1771: a path of excellence despite constraints
During the Age of Enlightenment, while philosophical and social contexts appeared to offer new prospects for women, the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture maintained strict rules of decorum that barred them from life-drawing studios. Women remained confined to portraiture and still life and were excluded from history painting. Institutional exclusion was explicit: from its foundation in 1648 by Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642) until its dissolution in 1793, the Academy admitted only fifteen women among more than five hundred male members (O. Fidière, Les femmes artistes à l’Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, Paris, 1885, p. 8).
In 1770, a quota limiting admission to four women was imposed, and Madame Roslin succeeded in being counted among them. One month after Anne Vallayer-Coster (1744-1818), she had the honor of being received and admitted on the same day, 1 September 1770. Her reception piece, the Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Pigalle in pastel, was exhibited at the Salon the following year, alongside 'several portraits under the same number', confirming her reputation (Explication des peintures, sculptures et gravures des messieurs de l’Académie royale, Paris, 1771, no. 151). Diderot (1713-1784) judged her a finer pastellist than her husband, and the critics acknowledged the female artistic competence on display: 'Several other portraits by this same artist [Mme Roslin], as well as the works of Mlle Vallayer, prove that the art of studying still or living nature and rendering its truths with feeling may be cultivated by women with equal success as by men' (L’Avant-Coureur, weekly paper, Paris, 23 September 1771, p. 601). Among these works, the present pastel, signed and dated the same year, may well have been shown.
Identification of the sitter: a previously unknown image of Hubert Robert’s wife
The elegant woman depicted by Marie-Suzanne Roslin is none other than Anne-Gabrielle Soos (1745-1821), wife of Hubert Robert (1733-1808). Of Lorraine origin like her husband, she was educated at the convent of the Filles de la Croix de Nesle in Picardy and married the painter on 6 July 1767, one year after his admission to the Academy. Their union produced four children. Described by contemporaries as a very beautiful woman, she remained constantly at his side, 'accompanying him in social life, sharing his friendships, and occasionally traveling with him to Méréville' (Faroult, Voiriot, op. cit., 2016, p. 31).
Until now, her likeness was known only through four drawings executed by her husband. A first sheet in red chalk and black stone shows her playing the hurdy-gurdy (Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie de Besançon, inv. D. 2916), while a profile drawing in pencil, dated around 1773, is preserved in a sketchbook recently acquired by the Louvre (fig. 1; inv. R.F. 55311, fol. 4). Two further sheets, still in private hands, complete this group: one represents her, as in the present pastel, absorbed in needlework; the other, also in red chalk, shows a moment of tenderness with her daughter Adélaïde (fig. 2; S. Catala, op. cit., nos. 60–61). In this context, the present portrait assumes particular importance, as it constitutes the only fully realized, finished representation known of this discreet woman. The pastel had previously been known only through a black-and-white photograph from the Exposition de Cent Pastels held in 1908 at the Galerie Georges Petit.
Depicted half-length, Madame Hubert Robert wears her hair dressed high and powdered, adorned with flowers, feathers, and a rosette, with only a few strands falling loosely at the sides. Her pink satin gown is trimmed with white lace flounces and embellished with blue bows that echo the tones of the fabric she is embroidering. Seated before a work frame, she embodies the domestic virtues then associated with women of quality, reinforcing the careful and flattering image offered by the pastel: creamy complexion, subtly flushed cheeks, and richly rendered textiles.
Madame Roslin puts into practice the teaching of La Tour, adopting his subtlety of tonal nuance achieved through a deliberately restrained palette. The three-quarter pose, the gentle, dreamy gaze directed into the distance, and the slight smile recall the Portrait of Marie-Louise Bouret de Vézelay, née Corbie d’Heurnonville, painted in oil by her husband in the same year (private collection; M. Olausson et al., Alexander Roslin, exh. cat., Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, 2007, no. 48).
Madame Roslin showed a particular fondness for portraying women from artistic circles. A testament to this is her pastel of Madame Charles-Pierre Coustou, recently sold at auction (Jeffares, 2006, op. cit., no. J.63.109), the wife of an architect from an illustrious family of sculptors, whose portrait was painted by Alexandre Roslin. She is shown engaged in another everyday gesture of high society at the time—pouring chocolate into a saucer to cool it before drinking it. This work is dated the same year as Madame Hubert Robert, 1771.
The artist’s career was cut short by her premature death on 30 August 1772 after a long illness, limiting her output to some twenty pastels. Yet, as a nineteenth-century critic observed, 'it is permissible to believe that, had she lived, Madame Roslin would have secured an honorable place within the French School' (O. Fidière, 1885, op. cit., p. 32). This portrait of a painter’s wife by a woman artist thus constitutes a unique testimony to their assertion within the artistic milieu of the second half of the century, while also reflecting the charm and grace that characterized their presence in enlightened circles. Admired early on, the work was widely reproduced in numerous copies and miniatures from the late eighteenth century throughout the nineteenth century (Voiriot, 2024, op. cit., pp. 116–117, figs. 3, 4 and 5).
Brought to you by
Pierre Etienne
International Director, Deputy Chairman of Christie's France, Old Master Paintings