NICHOLAS HILLIARD (1547-1619)

Marguerite of Valois, Queen of Navarre, facing left in black dress with jewelled chain, three brown bows set with jewelled clasps and pair of lapis tassels, lace-edged ruff, brown sleeves with floral posies at her shoulders, white plumed and jewelled aigrette in her black cap and three rubies in her fair hair

Details

NICHOLAS HILLIARD (1547-1619)
Marguerite of Valois, Queen of Navarre, facing left in black dress with jewelled chain, three brown bows set with jewelled clasps and pair of lapis tassels, lace-edged ruff, brown sleeves with floral posies at her shoulders, white plumed and jewelled aigrette in her black cap and three rubies in her fair hair
dated in gold 'Ano Dni 1577' (upper left)
on vellum stuck to card
oval, 2¼ in. (57 mm.) high, gold frame with black and white enamelled borders hung with three pendant pearls, the reverse with repoussé strapwork

Provenance

C. H. T. Hawkins, Bignor Park; Christie's, London, 16 May 1904, lot 1050, as Madame de Jourdis (?) (105gns. to Duveen).
John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), New York; Christie's, London, 24 June 1935, lot 101, as Mademoiselle de Sourdis, illustrated opp. p. 42 (160 gns. to Dr. Beets).
Frederik Müller, Amsterdam, 9-11 April 1940.
Dr. Anton F. Philips.

Literature

G. C. Williamson, Catalogue of the Collection of Miniatures, the property of J. Pierpont Morgan, London, 1906, I, pp. 25-26, 31-32, no. 23 (as Mademoiselle de Sourdis), illustrated pl. XVI, no. 2.
G. C. Williamson, 'Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan's Pictures. The Early Miniatures, I', The Connoisseur, December 1906, vol. XVI, p. 207 (as Mademoiselle de Sourdis), illustrated p. 205, no. XI.
E. Auerbach, Nicholas Hilliard, London, 1961, p. 293, no. 34 (as Mademoiselle de Sourdis).
R. Strong, The English Renaissance Miniature, London, 1983, p. 77, illustrated p. 79, fig. 87, p. 201.

Exhibited

London, Victoria & Albert Museum, Artists of the Tudor Court, 1983, no. 74, p. 70, illustrated.

Lot Essay

Marguerite of Valois (1552-1615), daughter of King Henry II and Catherine of Medici, married Henri of Navarre in 1572, the year of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. She was politically close to her brother, Francis, Duke of Anjou, who travelled south to Poitiers with the English Embassy during the summer of 1577. Marguerite reigned briefly over a court in her husband's principality of Béarn before she returned to Paris in 1582. She was confined to the Castle of Usson by King Henri IV.

Hilliard went to France with his wife, Alice Brandon, in the autumn of 1576; he must have returned before 30 April 1579, when an indenture was made between him and his father-in-law, Robert Brandon, who had lent him money. Hilliard is recorded as the valet de chambre to Anjou in 1577, and painted a miniature of the Duke on two occasions. Hilliard may have accompanied the Duke and the English embassy to Poitiers in 1577, and paid a visit to the Navarre court at Béarn; he was closely associated with the Navarre Queen's painter, Jacques Gaultier.

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