Portrait of Abel-François Poisson (1727-1781), Marquis de Marigny, three-quarter-length, in a red suit

This small, meticulously finished portrait of the Marquis de Marigny at his desk is a reduced version of a large-scale – roughly life-sized – portrait of Marigny by the Swedish portraitist Alexandre Roslin that was exhibited to acclaim at the Paris Salon of 1761. Following the success of the 1761 portrait, two further versions were commissioned from the artist by the Bâiments (the Royal buildings administration) in 1762, one large, one small. The large version ordered in 1762 was destined for the Academie Royale d’Architecture, and is today in Versailles (transferred from the Academie under Louis-Philippe). The other is the smaller Aitken version – which is signed and dated ‘Roslin. Sued. 1762’ on the molding, center right – and described in the Bâtiments archives as 'peint en petit et d’une exécution très soignée et très jolie'. This ‘elegant’ and ‘pretty’ little painting was made for Marigny himself to hang in the bedroom of his château at Ménars, as recorded in instructions he issued in 1779 for its transfer to his Paris hôtel particulier: 'The small portrait of me by Roslin which is in my bedroom at Ménars, to be put in the little room with the ottoman sofa at Place des Victoires in Paris' (Marquiset, 1918, pp. 208, 228-229). The other surviving large-scale version of the portrait is in the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Besançon and is likely the original Salon version from 1761.

Abel-François Poisson de Vandières, Marquis de Marigny (1727-1781) was one of the preeminent figures of the age of Louis XV. As the younger brother of Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Madame d’Étiolles and later Marquise de Pompadour (1721-1764), maîtresse-en-titre of the king, Marigny profited handsomely from his sister’s meteoric rise at court. When Madame de Pompadour moved into rooms at Versailles in 1745, her 18-year-old brother followed, and quickly attracted the favor of the king. As the royal mistress consolidated power over domestic and foreign policy, she also became a leading patroness of the arts. When Philibert Orry (1689-1747) retired as director of the Bâtiments du Roi in 1745, Pompadour arranged for Le Normant de Tournehem (1684-1751), her uncle by marriage, to assume the post with the understanding that her younger brother would inherit it as soon as he was sufficiently trained and experienced. In preparation for his future role, Marigny launched himself on an extended trip through Italy (1749-1751) under the tutelage of the art critic Abbé Le Blanc, the architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot and the draftsman Charles-Nicolas Cochin. Upon his return to France, and with the guidance of Premier Peintre du Roi, Charles Coypel, he selected works from the royal collections for exhibition at the Palais du Luxembourg, creating what was, in effect, the first public art museum in France. With the death of Le Tournehem in 1751, Marigny became at age 24 the Directeur Général des Bâtiments, Jardins, Arts, Académies et Manufactures Royales – Minister of Arts for Louis XV. He held the position until 1773 – almost a decade after the death of his sister – and in many ways transformed Paris into the city we know today: planting the gardens of the Champs-Elysées, supervising construction of the École Militaire, and directing construction of the Place Louis XV (today the Place de la Concorde), the Panthéon (designed by Soufflot), the Théâtre-Français (today the Odéon), and completing construction of the Louvre. A diligent and visionary administrator, his advocacy for the ‘rebirth’ of classical painting, architecture and design in France was a driving force behind the rise of the French Neoclassical movement. He assumed the title of Marquis de Marigny in 1754, married in 1767, and died suddenly in Paris in 1781, aged 54.

Conceived to present Marigny as a man of advanced taste and the steady hand at the helm of the reform movement for the arts in France, Roslin’s painting portrays his sitter at work. He wears an opulent gold-embroidered red velvet frock coat and breeches, with the blue satin sash of the chivalric Order of the Saint-Esprit across his chest. Seated at his writing table, which is in the most advanced and fashionable ‘style goût grec’, he turns toward the viewer and away, momentarily, from the architectural plans and designs for his most celebrated achievements: the new Colonnade and façade of the Louvre. Behind these plans are volumes of verse and Palladio’s architecture, alluding to his literary tastes and vocation. Beside his chair is a large porphyry vase with neoclassical gilt-bronze mounts ‘à la grecque’, which is today in the decorative arts collections of the Louvre. On the wall above the desk is a painting identifiable as L’Accordée de Village (‘The Village Betrothal’) by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805), one of the first important works by the artist to infuse a humble genre scene with the heroic stature of history painting. Greuze’s painting proved the sensation of the Salon of 1761, although it was late in coming and only arrived in time to hang for the final two weeks of the exhibition. A letter from Cochin to Marigny (17 September 1761) makes evident that Marigny had purchased the painting before it was even finished: 'Today, M. Greuze completes the picture he is doing for your collection; he will still have it at his studio tomorrow and the day after. I have the honor of informing you of this, so that if you should have any curiosity to see it before it is exhibited at the Salon, you can satisfy it. As soon as it is dry, he will have it taken to the Salon'. It is telling that in Roslin’s first version of Marigny’s portrait – which was also exhibited in the same Salon but completed in advance of L’Accordée de Village – the picture frame above the sitter’s head reproduces a different, unidentifiable painting; only in the Aitken version – painted in the following year – was Greuze’s masterpiece available to be included as the great trophy of Marigny’s cabinet.