PIERRE MIGNARD. 1612-1695

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DE LA VALLIERE AS FLORA Oil on panel. 47 X 36 cm (oval). Inv. No 1021 Louise Frangoise de La Baume Le Blanc, Duchess de La Valliere (1644—1710), was a favorite of Louis XIV. Finished her days in a Carmelite convent. The iconography of the portrait has long been contested. Disagreeing with the traditional title, G. F. Waagen believed it to be a portrait of Mignard's daughter Catherine de Fouquieres whom the sitter greatly resembles. It seems more probable, however, that the subject should be sought among the ladies of the Court, since there is another portrait by Mi-gnard, kept at Versailles, almost identical in composition and representing another favorite of the King, Mme de Montespan. The Pushkin Museum portrait could be a replica of a larger one, conceived as a companion piece to the portrait of Mme de Monte-span, and may be dated to the 1660s. Provenance: 1770s — 1924 The Hermitage, St Petersburg — Petrograd; since 1924 The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Bibliography: Кат. ГМИИ 1948, p. 52; Кат. ГМИИ 1957, p. 93; Кат. ГМИИ 1961, p. 127; Cat. Ermitage 1774, No 1173; Dussieux 1856, p. 440; Cat. Ermitage 1863, No 1458; Waagen 1864, pp. 298—299; Сомов 1900, No 1458; Кат. Эрмитажа 1916, No 1458; Reau 1929, No 597

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