François de Troy (Tolouse 1645-1730 Paris)

Portrait of H. Bernard de Roqueleyne, the Baron de Longepierre (1659-1721), three-quarter-length, in a red coat and white cravatte, holding a book in his left hand

Details

François de Troy (Tolouse 1645-1730 Paris)
Portrait of H. Bernard de Roqueleyne, the Baron de Longepierre (1659-1721), three-quarter-length, in a red coat and white cravatte, holding a book in his left hand
oil on canvas
51½ x 38¼ in. (130.8 x 97.2 cm.)

Provenance

Seillière collection, Paris.
Degeuser, sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 13 May 1898 (FF 6,000).
Mrs. Meyer Sassoon, Pope's Manor, Bracknell, Berks.

Literature

R. Portalis, Bernard de Requeleyne, Baron de Longepierre, Paris, 1905, pp. 74-78, illustrated.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy of Arts, Winter Exhibition - The Eighteenth Century, 1954-55, no. 432.

Lot Essay

Known as a literati par excellence, Baron Longpierre translated the ancient Greeks and wrote several plays including Médéé in 1694, Sésostris in 1695, Electre in 1702 and in 1713, he wrote the Ballet de la Paix. In 1687 he won the admiration of King Louis XIV and for this became the tutor of the Count de Toulouse (the illegitimate son of the King and Madame de Montespan) as well as the tutor of Philippe d'Orléans (the nephew of the King and the future Regent for Louis XV). As a book collector, the Baron was known for his elaborately bound books decorated with the Golden Fleece.

This lot is to be sold with a copy of the sitter's biography, op. cit..

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