Lot Essay
At the time the portrait was painted by Rigaud, the sitter was described in the artist's Livre de Raison: 'Mr. le Marquis de Corsiny, envoyé de Florence depuis Cardinal, reveu du pape', J. Roman, Le livre de Raison du peintre Hyacinthe Rigaud, Paris, 1919, p. 152, under the year 1710. According to the same book the artist asked his assistant Bailleul to transfer the portrait drawing to canvas. The squaring of the present drawing in black chalk and the emphasis laid on the dress might suggest that it was a preliminary study for the portrait. Mary O'Neill, however, argues that the artist executed black chalk drawings as a record of his finished portraits, possibly for an engraver, M. O'Neill, Three Drawings in American Collections after portraits by Rigaud, Master Drawings, XXII, 1984, pp. 186-94. A print after this portrait was etched by Pietro Antonio Pazzi; however, it was made from a drawing by Giovanni Domenico Campiglia.