The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 20, 2023

Portrait of the Marquise d'Aguirandes

1759

François Hubert Drouais

(French, 1727–1775)

France, 18th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 138.6 x 111.9 x 13.7 cm (54 9/16 x 44 1/16 x 5 3/8 in.); Unframed: 101 x 85.6 cm (39 3/4 x 33 11/16 in.)

Bequest of John L. Severance 1942.638

Location

216B French and German

Description

Like many French portraitists active during the ancien régime, François-Hubert Drouais was skilled at veiling the physical imperfections of his subjects. This portrait certainly has this quality: the face has been idealized, smoothed, and perfected, but the focus of the painting is less on the Marquise and more on her elegant gown, which is a particularly fine rendering of eighteenth-century printed cloth, with the brilliant gold and white fabric strewn with meticulously detailed flowers and lace.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed upper left: "Drouais fecit 1759"

Provenance
M. de Callieux, Lyons, France, descendant of the sitter
Wildenstein & Co., New York, NY
1928-1936
John L. Severance (1863-1936), Cleveland Heights, OH, purchased from CMA exhibition, upon his death, held in trust by the estate
1936-1942
Estate of John L. Severance Collection, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art.
1942-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Wildenstein, George "Le XVIIIe Siecle," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. VII (January 1932). p. 65, fig. 12
Léon, Paul, W.G. Constable, and Trenchard Cox. Exhibition of French art, 1200-1900 [second ed.]. London: Burlington House, 1932. no. 249, cat. no. 160
Wildenstein, George "Paintings from America in the French Exhibition," Fine Arts, vol XIX (January 193?). p. 26, repr. p. 23
Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain). Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of French Art, 1200-1900. London: Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1933. Mentioned: p. 44, no. 160
The Connoisseur (November 1934). p. 335
Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika, mit über 300 Kupfertiefdrucktafeln. Wien: Phaidon-Verlag, 1935. p. 259
Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition : June Twenty-Sixth to October Fourth 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: [Cleveland Museum of Art], 1936. no. 58, p. 32. repr. plate IV
Milliken., W. M. "World Art at Cleveland," American Magazine of Art, XXIX (July 1936). p. 435
Art News, (June 13, 1936). p. 13
Catalogue of the John L. Severance Collection: Bequest of John L. Severance, 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1942. Reproduced: p. [20], Plate VIII, cat. no. 4; Mention: p. 21, cat. no. 4 archive.org
Art Digest, vol. XVII (December 1, 1942). p. 8
Francis, Henry S. “Department of Paintings.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 29, no. 9 (1942). pp. 130, 135 www.jstor.org
Comstock, Helen "The John L Severance Collection at Cleveland," Connoisseur, CXI (March 1943). pp. 61, 63
"Cleveland Museum," Life Magazine, (September 20, 1943). p. 66
Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. 31 archive.org
Kertesz, M. Wagner de. Historia universal de las joyas. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Centurion, 1945. p. 513
Goncourt, Edmond de, and Jules de Goncourt. French XVIII Century Painters. New York: Phaidon, 1948. p. v
Coe, Nancy. The History of the Collecting of European Paintings and Drawings in the City of Cleveland. 1955. p. 231, no. 4
Winnipeg Art Gallery. Portraits, Mirror of Man: [Exhibition] September 30 to October 28, 1956. Winnipeg: The Gallery, 1956. cat. no. 24, pp. 1, 8
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 483 archive.org
"Francois Boucher review of Gunnar W Lundberg's Alexander Roslin: Liv och verk (sa vie et son oeuvre)" Gazette des Beaux-Arts, LVI (1960). p. 243, fig. 2
Saisselin, Rémy G. Style, Truth, and the Portrait. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1963. cat. no. 51
Davidson, Ruth "Features-Special Events," ("Portraits in Cleveland"), Antiques, vol. LXXXIV (October 1963). p. 464
"The Artist View of Man: Portraiture Through Four Centuries," the Illustrated London News, vol. 243 (October 5, 1963). p. 521
Spar, Francis, "La Lettre d'information de Francis Spar: Les nouveaux goûts," Connaissance des Arts, no. 140 (October 1963). p. 49
Boucher, François. Histoire du costume en Occident, de l'antiquité a nos jours, [par] Franc̜ois Boucher. [Paris]: Flammarion, 1965. p. 297, fig. 716
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 136 archive.org
"Apollo Magazine" advertisement, Art In America, (May-June 1967). p. 74
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 136 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 179 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 66; Mentioned: p. 67
Zafran, Eric. The Rococo Age: French Masterpieces of the Eighteenth Century. Atlanta, Ga: High Museum of Art, 1983. cat. no. 33, pp. 73, 88
Shackelford, George T. M., and Mary Tavener Holmes. A Magic Mirror: The Portrait in France, 1700-1900 : the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 12, 1986-January 25, 1987. Houston, Tex: The Museum, 1986. cat. no. 13, p. 58
Kyōto Kokuritsu Kindai Bijutsukan, and Kyōto Fukushoku Bunka Kenkyū Zaidan. Karei na kakumei: rokoko to shin koten no ishō ten : 1989-nen 4-gatsu 4-nichi--5-gatsu 28-nichi, Kyōto Kokuritsu Kindai Bijutsukan. [Kyoto]: Kyōto Fukushoku Bunka Kenkyū Zaidan, 1989. p. 140
Ribeiro, Aileen. Dress in Eighteenth-Century Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. Pls. 92-93, 105, pp. 140, 143, 156
DeJean, Joan. "Extravagent display: Paris Life and Luxury". Antiques (May/June 2011). p. 145, fig. 8
Bremer-David, Charissa. Paris: Life & Luxury in the Eighteenth Century. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011. Fig. 63, p. 106
Exhibition history

Representative Art through the Ages. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 8- December 2, 1928).

Exhibition of French Art form 1200-1900, Roual Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London (January 4-March 5, 1932).

20th Anniversary Exhibition, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 26-October 12, 1936).

Portraits: Mirror of Man, The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Canada (September 30 to October 28, 1956).

The Rococo Age: French Masterpieces of the 18th Century, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA (5 October-31 December 1983).

Magic Mirror: the Portrait in France 1700-1900, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, TX (October 10, 1986-January 25, 1987).

Art of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 9-December 2, 1934).

Exhibition of the John L. Severance Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 12, 1942-March 14, 1943).

Style, Truth and the Portrait. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 1-November 19, 1963).

Paris: Life & Luxury. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (April 26-August 7, 2011); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (September 18, 2011-January 1, 2012).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1942.638