A handsome portrait of Louis Marie Fouquet, painted after his death in battle 1758. The gilded frame features the Fouquet family emblem.
Translation of inscription top right reads – Portrait in armour of Louis Marie Fouquet de Belle-Isle, Count of Gisors, colonel owner of the Champagne regiment, lieutenant of the musketeers 1732 – 1758
On the 23rd of May 1753, Louis Marie married Helene Mancini, Mademoiselle de Nevers (1740–1780). The Mancini’s are one of the oldest Roman noble families and Helene was also the great great niece of Cardinal Mazarin.
Image size H 970mm x W 700mm Overall size H 1153mm x W 900mm
The great grandfather of Louis Marie Fouquet was Nicolas Fouquet, who built Vaux le Vicomte ( one of the most important privately-owned châteaux in France ).
Nicolas Fouquet, was superintendent of finances under King Louis XIV. He surrounded himself with the most celebrated painters, sculptors, musicians, etc. During a fateful ( house warming ) celebration in honour of the king, in 1661, the lavish hospitality impressed the royal entourage so much that they declared the fête the best they had ever attended. Outshining the king wasn’t the best policy. Voltaire wrote, “On August 17th, at six in the evening, Fouquet was King of France, at two in the morning, he was nobody.” Fouquet was arrested and imprisoned for life and his wife exiled. Vaux-le-Vicomte was sequestered and the king confiscated 120 tapestries, the statues and all the orange trees. King Louis XIV took these along with Fouquet’s architect, painter and landscaper (Le Vau, Le Nôtre and Le Brun) and created Versailles, so the king would never be outshone again.
$7,800.00