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Pierre GOBERT (1662-1744), Attributed to
Presumed portrait o…
See original version (French)
162
-
Pierre GOBERT (1662-1744), Attributed to
Presumed portrait o…
See original version (French)
Estimate €12,000 - €15,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Pierre GOBERT (1662-1744), Attributed to
Presumed portrait of Marie-Anne de Bourbon-Conti, Duchess of Bourbon (1689-1720)
Oil on canvas.
H_50,5 x W_40,5 cm
Faded.
Son of Jean Gobert, sculptor to the king, Pierre Gobert (1662-1744) was one of the most prolific portrait painters of his time. Born into a family of artists, his brother Jean Gobert was the king's painter and his son Philippe-Alexis Gobert worked as a miniaturist.
Awarded the title of Academician in 1701, with a "portrait of Monsieur Van Clève" and a "portrait of Monsieur Boullogne le Jeune" [Louis de Boullogne], he was much in demand by the French aristocracy under the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV. Among his most illustrious clients were the princes and princesses of Lorraine, Condé, Conti and the dukes of Orléans. The royal family also called on his talent on numerous occasions. He painted portraits of King Louis XV, Queen Marie Leczynska (for which the accounts of the Bâtiments du roi mention three payments in 1726: 1,500 pounds, 600 pounds and 600 pounds again) and several of their children.
Very active on the Parisian art scene, he exhibited many paintings at the Salon and even became an advisor to the Royal Academy. Pierre Gobert was partly forgotten during the 19th and 20th centuries, but is now being rediscovered. Several works wrongly attributed to Pierre Mignard and Jean-Baptiste Van Loo should be returned to him.
Fernand Enguerand said of Pierre Gobert's portraits: "There are often charming, even exquisite ones, which bear witness to a real skill of hand: the portraits of children in particular must be set apart from the rest; the artist treated them with remarkable grace and happiness of expression. This was undoubtedly the genre in which he excelled, and the Musée de Versailles shows samples that are likely to place the artist alongside the best." (extract from "Pierre Gobert, Peintre de portraits" in L'Artiste, March 1897, pp. 161-174).
Our painting should be compared with the portrait of Marie-Anne de Bourbon-Conti in the Musée du Château de Versailles [MV 4359; INV 9750; B 1910] and with a pastel sold at Christie's New York in January 1991 (with an attribution to Alexis Simon Belle since rejected by Mr Neil Jeffares, who sees it more as a 19th-century pastiche). This pastel is certainly a late copy of our composition.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Lot description modified on 06/04/2026 at 2:31 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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