Lot Essay
The sitter was the wife of Henri de Vicq, Sieur de Meulevelt
(1573-1651). The son of a lawyer and theologian, de Vicq was
successively elderman of the Bruges Franc (1606-8 and 1611) and a
member of the Conseil Privé and the Conseil d'Etat of the Spanish
Netherlands: in 1638 he became chairman of the Grand Conseil of
Malines. His most significant office was that of Ambassador of the
Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, Sovereign of the Seventeen Provinces and Regent of the Spanish Netherlands to King Louis XIII of France.
The present picture, the whereabouts of which have been unknown since it was last sold at Christie's in 1848, is the pendant to the portrait of Henri de Vicq in the Louvre. De Vicq evidently met the artist on his visit to Paris from 11 January to 26 February 1622. The two portraits must have been executed in 1625, when Rubens was in Paris during the celebrations that marked the marriage by proxy of King Charles I of England to Princess Henrietta Maria. For Rubens to receive such a commission is readily understandable in view not only of his long service as painter but, later, as diplomat on behalf of the House of Hapsburg. What is notable about his likeness of Madame de Vicq, and suggestive of a genuine rapport between sitter and artist, is the warmth and understanding with which he captures her in her elaborate finery.
Smith in 1830 valued the picture for 350 guineas and its pendant at 300 guineas. These were then in the possession of the Hon. Lady Stuart of Thatched House Lodge, Richmond. She owned a notable group of pictures, the majority by Flemish and Dutch hands. It seems likely that these had almost all been owned by her husband, General the Hon. Sir Charles Stuart (1753-1801), the fifth and favourite son of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, who was perhaps the leading collector of northern pictures in England in the 18th Century. Stuart had inherited the contents of Highcliffe, his father's 'cottage for the sea air', enlarged in the late 1770s and 1780s in Hampshire. The marine pictures from Highcliffe were sold at Christie's in 1794 but Stuart may well have kept other works from his father's collection and the suggestion, followed by Huemer (p.180), that Bute had acquired the Vicq portraits at the time of the van den Branden sale in 1776 may be correct
(1573-1651). The son of a lawyer and theologian, de Vicq was
successively elderman of the Bruges Franc (1606-8 and 1611) and a
member of the Conseil Privé and the Conseil d'Etat of the Spanish
Netherlands: in 1638 he became chairman of the Grand Conseil of
Malines. His most significant office was that of Ambassador of the
Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, Sovereign of the Seventeen Provinces and Regent of the Spanish Netherlands to King Louis XIII of France.
The present picture, the whereabouts of which have been unknown since it was last sold at Christie's in 1848, is the pendant to the portrait of Henri de Vicq in the Louvre. De Vicq evidently met the artist on his visit to Paris from 11 January to 26 February 1622. The two portraits must have been executed in 1625, when Rubens was in Paris during the celebrations that marked the marriage by proxy of King Charles I of England to Princess Henrietta Maria. For Rubens to receive such a commission is readily understandable in view not only of his long service as painter but, later, as diplomat on behalf of the House of Hapsburg. What is notable about his likeness of Madame de Vicq, and suggestive of a genuine rapport between sitter and artist, is the warmth and understanding with which he captures her in her elaborate finery.
Smith in 1830 valued the picture for 350 guineas and its pendant at 300 guineas. These were then in the possession of the Hon. Lady Stuart of Thatched House Lodge, Richmond. She owned a notable group of pictures, the majority by Flemish and Dutch hands. It seems likely that these had almost all been owned by her husband, General the Hon. Sir Charles Stuart (1753-1801), the fifth and favourite son of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, who was perhaps the leading collector of northern pictures in England in the 18th Century. Stuart had inherited the contents of Highcliffe, his father's 'cottage for the sea air', enlarged in the late 1770s and 1780s in Hampshire. The marine pictures from Highcliffe were sold at Christie's in 1794 but Stuart may well have kept other works from his father's collection and the suggestion, followed by Huemer (p.180), that Bute had acquired the Vicq portraits at the time of the van den Branden sale in 1776 may be correct