print
- Museum number
- 1902,1011.125
- Title
- Object: N de Largeliere
- Description
-
Portrait of Nicolas de Largillière and his family in a garden; on right, the painter, wearing wig and cloak and leaning on a pedestal, on which is an urn; in the centre, a child with a bird sitting on her hand; on left, a woman, seated with a child on her lap, and holding a bunch of grapes in one hand and a piece of fruit in the other; to the left of the woman a dog, and above her a peacock; in the background, trees, and to the left a fountain of Cupid riding dolphin, and to the right a statue of a nude female. 1686
Mezzotint
- Production date
- 1686
- Dimensions
-
Height: 367 millimetres
-
Width: 269 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Text from Antony Griffiths, 'The Print in Stuart Britain', BM 1998 cat.163)
Largillierre, who later became one of the outstanding French portraitists of his day, had close connections with England in his early years. He was in London in 1665-7, and again in 1675-9 when he worked for Lely and Verrio. He returned for a third time to London in 1686-7 to paint portraits of the newly-enthroned James (now in the National Maritime Museum) and Mary of Modena (now lost). These provoked a flurry of activity in the mezzotint world. In the 'London Gazette' on 13 December Beckett advertised for sale 'their Majesties effigies after the last painting by Mr Largilliere' (these are CS 52 and 71). The next issue on 13 December carried a counter-advertisement from Alexander Browne: 'This is to give notice that their Majesties effigies are curiously done in mezzotinto after the last original paintings of Mr Largilliere, and exactly corrected by himself, the best that have been yet made. Sold by Alexander Browne at the Blue Balcony in Little Queen Street near Lincolns Inn Fields.' On 20 December Browne put in another advertisement to say that these two plates were now finished - a sure sign that the previous advertisement had been rushed forward to counteract Beckett's. Browne's prints were made for him by John Smith (CS 145 and 171), and are sufficiently similar to Beckett's to have led some students to wonder whether they might be the same plates.
It will never be clear what had happened. If Largillierre really had corrected Smith's plates, as Browne claimed, they must be the authorised versions, and Beckett's were not. This is also implied by the fact that Beckett's prints are excessively rare, surviving in only two or three impressions, while Smith's are common. They must have been suppressed, and Browne's privilege of April 1686 may have been used to ensure this. Browne would have known Largillierre well from his previous sojourns in London; Beckett would not. Another portrait Largillierre painted this year was mezzotinted by Smith (CS 264), and Smith maintained the link after his return to Paris, engraving the double portrait of the children of the exiled James II, published by Chéreau in 1699 (CS 247).
Yet Beckett certainly did have links with Largillierre. The evidence is his mezzotint of Pieter van der Meulen of 1686 (CS 95) which is after Largilliere, and this family portrait group of 1687 which is lettered 'N. de Largiliere pinx. I Beckett fe.'. It has always been identified as of the artist and his family. Vertue saw the original painting in the collection of the Duke of Portland, and noted that it was only two and a half feet high but very highly finished. It was signed and dated 1687, and Vertue commented that this 'must surely imply that he had no great call for business that coud bestow so much labour on a peice for himself' (V 22). Vertue's identification cannot be doubted, although recent writing about Largillierre mentions neither this painting nor his early marriage.
It is tempting to guess that there had been a genuine muddle over the portraits of James and Mary in 1686, and that, as compensation for withdrawing his plates, Beckett was given this beautiful painting to engrave. (Much information given here is drawn from the monograph by Myra Nan Rosenfeld, 'Largillierre and the eighteenth-century portrait', Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1981.)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1902
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1902,1011.125