Melle de Bourbon Conti, attributed to Pierre Gobert circa 1720

Very beautiful portrait, representing Marie Anne de Bourbon Conti (1666-1739)* standing in a palace room with a checkered floor.
The princess is dressed à l'Espagnolette, she wears the ruff, a beret and a long dress of blue velvet over a gold-embroidered satin corset.
She shows a mask in her right hand and holds a handkerchief in her left hand.

Oil on its original canvas with provenance label:

"marie anne de Bourbon / p.ce dowager of Louis armand / Prince of Conti 1734 / this princess gave this portrait / to Jean Charles de Crussol duke of Uzès / in 1734".

Regilded wooden frame and 19th century chassis.
(label of the Mercier house, restorer of paintings)

Mark of property in fire on the reverse of the frame for the Château d'Oublaise in Lucay-le-Mâle.

Very good state of preservation.

Attributed to Pierre Gobert*, Paris around 1720.

Dimensions:

Frame: Height: 103 cm, Width: 86 cm
Canvas: Height: 83 cm; Width: 67cm

Our opinion :

Pierre Gobert presents the princess who is fifty years old in a fanciful costume probably used at costume balls, as the black mask she wears seems to indicate.
This type of party, inspired by Venetian ceremonies, was very fashionable during the regency of Philippe d'Orléans.
A few painters like Jean Baptiste Santerre or Pierre Gobert will wonderfully illustrate this practice of the great nobility.
The master demonstrates his skills as a colorist with a vivid palette that draws the eye to the clothes, which are the main subject of our painting, and softer colors for the princess's face.
As the label on the canvas indicates, our work is a gift from the princess to her friend, the Duke of Uzès.

*Marie Anne de Bourbon, known as "Mademoiselle de Blois" (first name), Princess of Conti in 1680, is a legitimized daughter of King Louis XIV of France and Louise de La Vallière, born in Vincennes on October 2, 1666 and died in Paris on May 3, 1739. After the death of her husband, she was Princess Dowager of Conti.

*Pierre Gobert (Fontainebleau, 1662 – Paris, 1744) is a French painter, he is the son of the sculptor Jean II Gobert. He was received at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture on December 31, 1701 as a portrait painter.
He became the favorite painter of the great ladies of the court at Versailles at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, as shown by the large number of portraits of them he produced.