Portrait of Mlle de Nantes, Pierre Mignard (1612-1695) and workshop

Relined canvas, 55 cm by 45 cm.
Antique frame with original gilding, 66 cm by 57cm.

Mignard and his workshop offer us a superb portraitof Mlle de Nantes. She is dressed in a rich satin bodice embroideredembroidered with golden arabesques and trimmed with fine lace, complemented by aand blue drapery. The hairstyle of long curlsthe face, and the idealized elegance of the features, link this workto French court portraiture in the reign of Louis XIV.

Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, Duchesse deBourbon (1673-1743)

Louise-Françoise de Bourbon was born in Tournai on June 1.June 1673. She was one of the legitimate daughters of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan.Montespan, the sovereign's official favorite during the reign's mostyears of the reign. From an early age, she enjoyed the special attentionattention of the king, who personally oversaw the education andof his legitimate natural children.Known as Mademoiselle de Nantes, she grew upgrew up in an environment of exceptional luxury and refinement,between Versailles, Saint-Germain-en-Laye and the royal residences. Hereducation was entrusted to Madame de Maintenon, who exerted ainfluence on the king's children. The young princess received an educationaristocracy: religion, dance, music,maintenance and literary culture.In 1692, Louis XIV organized her marriage to LouisIII de Bourbon-Condé, heir to the prestigious House of Condé. This uniona major political event: it marked the gradual integration of the king'sof the king's legitimate children into the kingdom's highest princely lineages.kingdom. Through this alliance, the sovereign affirmed his desire to strengthenthe dynastic status of his descendants from Madame de Montespan.As Duchess of Bourbon, Louise-Françoise enjoyed ain the heart of Versailles society. Renowned for herbeauty, a taste for splendor and a keen intelligence, she ran an influential salonsalon and played an active role in the social life of the court. The chroniclersher energetic, sometimes ambitious character, as well as the importance of herthe importance of her political entourage at the end of Louis XIV's reign and during theRegency.Like many princesses of her time, she was the subject of severalthe subject of several portraits by the best artists of the court, notablycourt, notably in the circle of Pierre Mignard and François de Troy. Theserepresentations play an integral part in the staging of monarchical powerpower and the aristocratic feminine ideal developed at Versailles.After the death of Louis XIV in 1715, she retaineda significant place in princely circles and continued to exert an importantinfluence in court networks. She died in Paris in 1743,leaving behind the memory of a key figure in French aristocracy at theof the Grand Siècle and the Age of Enlightenment.