This sumptuous early 18th-century portrait by leading French artist Louis de Silvestre (1675-1760) depicts Baron Pierre de Gaultier, a nobleman and diplomat active during the final years of Louis XIV and the Regency of Philippe d’Orléans.
Carrying a sense of calm self-assurance, he’s a man of cultivated taste. His blue justaucorps, embroidered with gold, conveys rank, while his crimson cloak, ostentatiously lined with gold fabric, rests across his left shoulder. The flesh tones are exquisitely rendered and naturalistic, while the eyes reveal a sense of his character - both alert yet tempered with genteel sentiment.
Born in Geneva in 1678 to a Huguenot family, Gaultier’s father was a councillor to the Great Elector of Brandenburg. As such, his early career followed a similar path before a move to Dresden around 1715. Here, Augustus the Strong was at the helm of one of Europe’s most glittering courts.
Rising swiftly through the ranks, he was soon appointed Court and Justice Councillor and became a Baron in 1721. Given the portrait’s date of 1723, it’s intriguing to consider whether the commission of this work was directly linked to his rise in status. Between 1729 and 1733, his role involved presiding over the royal chapel, where he oversaw the appointment of countless musicians, dancers, and theatre personnel. Evidently a buoyant chap, known by many.
Like many enlightened gents during this period, he was an avid correspondent and deeply engaged with both the cultural and political spheres of courtly duties. Among his correspondents was Louis de Silvestre, the artist behind our work, which adds additional clarity to the attribution.
Silvestre trained in Paris under Bon Boullogne (1649-1717), who was considered to be among the finest portraitists of his generation. Working under such an esteemed master left its mark and resulted in Silvestre's balance of both superior composition and refined elegance. By the 1710s, his stock had risen to such an extent that he held a commanding position at the Académie Royale and became Court Painter to the King of Poland and Saxony in Dresden.
Here, his portrayals of numerous courtiers and foreign envoys were executed with his typically adroit handling and balance of grandiosity and intimacy. Indeed, it was this which defined his style, the ability to work in the tricky space between the gravitas of Louis XIV portraiture and the frivolity of the emerging Rococo.
On first glance, this accomplished rendering of Baron Pierre de Gaultier may appear to be a statement of pomp - the elaborate coat over armour, the perfectly coiffed wig, the dazzling gold embellishments. Yet when you rest your gaze on the delicate expression, you’re in conversation with a human. A nobleman, adorned in his respectable court attire, yet bustling with the joviality of life. This was Silvestre’s skill; he painted the man beneath the trappings.
His work is represented in major public collections, including the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Galleries of Scotland, and the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Inscribed on the reverse with information relating to the sitter and “peint par Silvestre 1723”. Held in a later gilt frame with pierced rococo-style ornamentation, scrolling foliage, shell motifs, and openwork corners and edges.
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Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 31” x 38” / 79cm x 96cm
Year of creation: 1723
Labels & Inscriptions: Inscribed on the reverse with information relating to the sitter and “peint par Silvestre 1723”.
Provenance: Saxon-Thuringian Noble Property, Germany.
Condition: Cleaned. Revarnished. Canvas relined. One faint stretcher mark. Fine craquelure throughout. The paint layer is stable. Later stretcher. Frame in excellent condition.
Artist’s auction maximum: £66,490 for ‘Portrait of August III, Elector of Saxony, King of Poland’, Oil on canvas, Lisbon, Portugal, 14 March 2018.
Our reference: BRV2194
