French School, circa 1770

Details
French School, circa 1770

The Royal Family and others including: Le Roy Louis XVI in embroidered blue coat, pink waistcoat and white cravat, powdered hair en queue; La Reine Marie Antoinette, in blue dress and plumed hat; La Reine in green and pink dress with ermine lined blue coat; Madame la Fille du Roy, the King's daughter, in white dress and pink hairband; Madame, the King's sister, in fur bordered pink dress, veil and flowers in her hair; Madame d'Artois in décolleté pink dress with ermine-lined blue coat; Monsieur l'abbe Maury in black vestments; Monsieur de La fayette in blue uniform, red collar, white facings and gold epaulette; and Monsieur Bailly in black coat and white stock

set in silver buttons with paste diamond borders, the sitter's identities engraved on the reverse
1 in. (25mm.) diam. (9)
Provenance
Anonymous sale, Christie's, 10 July 1990, lot 59

Lot Essay

Louis XVI (1754-1793) married Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), Archduchess of Austria, in 1770 and succeeded his grandfather to the throne in 1774.

Marie Thérèse (1778-1851), the King's daughter married her first cousin Louis Antoine, Duke of Angouleme (1775-1844) in 1799. Louis Antoine, son of Charles X later became Dauphin and titular King Louis XIX.

Madame Elizabeth (1764-1794), the King's sister, shared the sufferings of her brother and was guillotined with him and his family.

Marie-Therese (1756-1805), 3rd daughter of Vittorio Amedeo III, King of Sardinia, married Charles Philippe (1757-1836), Count of Artois, later Charles X in 1773.

Jean Siffrein, abbé Maury (1746-1817), was the King's priest at Versailles. He became a member of the Academie Francaise in 1784. When the Constitution was dissolved he left for Rome where he was made Archbishop of Nicea in 1792 and Cardinal-Priest of Sainte Trinité on Mount Picino. In 1805 Napoleon offered him the Cardinal's honour in France and a place in the Senate. He fell from favour with the Pope for his disloyality with the Church.

Gilbert Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (1757-1834) engaged as a mercenary in the American War of Independence on the side of the colonists. He served under Washington, whom he revered as a surrogate father. On his return to France, Louis XVI made him maréchal de camp. In 1787 he was elected to the Assembly of Notables but when the Estates became the National Assembly he identified with the commons. La Fayette stayed moderate and when he plotted to use his army to restore Louis to power, the Assembly indicted him for treason, a danger he escaped by defecting.

Jean-Sulvain Bailly (1836-1793), first Mayor of Paris, became deputy at the Estates General and was made doyen of the Third Estate and president of the Assemblée Constituante. He received the King in the town hall on 17 July 1789. Together with La Fayette, Bailly suppressed the people's riot which led to the massacre of the Champs de Mars. Once the constitution was accomplished, Bailly retired from his post as president of the National Assembly and was without delay arrested and sentenced to death because of his anti-revolutionary actions on the Champ-de-Mars

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