Lot 735: ANDR-CLAUDE MARTIN LEFEVRE D'ORGEVAL (fl. c. 1740-1760)

Louis XV and Queen Maria Leszczynska; Louis XV, standing full length holding an enamelled baton, in gilt-studded armour over pink coat with silver-embroidered blue cuffs, wearing the ribbon and star of the Royal French Order of the Holy Ghost, ermine lined-gold embroidered blue fleur-de-lys cloak draping from the gilt-wood console table adorned with putti, Royal crown and sceptre and plumed helmet, pillar and red curtain background; Queen Marie Leszczynska, standing full length in brocaded orange dress with frilled lace sleeves, a page boy holding an ermine-lined gold-embroidered-blue fleur-de-lys cloak, a winged putti holding a crown on gold-embroidered blue fleur-de-lys cushion; terrace and steps, fountain background with trees and countryside beyond the latter signed 'Le Feure' (lower right) on vellum rectangular, 63/4 x 4 15/16 in. (173 x 125 mm.) each, splendid Louis XV gilt-bronze frames finely cast with foliate trails and the Royal coat-of-arms of France and France and Poland, respectively, the base centred by a c-scroll cartouche with entwined L and ML cypher, respectively (2) PROVENANCE For Queen Marie Leszczynska: Acquired by Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford (d. 1870) by 1848. Thence by descent until bequeathed to Sir John Murray Scott, Bt.; Christie's, London, 24 June 1913, lot 21 (30gns. to A. Wertheimer). Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt., 25 Park Lane, W.1, recorded in the large Drawing Room in the pre-1927 inventory. Thence by descent to Marquis of Cholmondeley; Christie's, London, 8 December 1994, lot 47. For King Louis XV and Queen Marie Leszczynska: With Konrad Bernheimer, Munich, 1997, acquired by Dr Anton C. R. Dreesmann (inventory no. F-216). LITERATURE For Queen Marie Leszczynska: G. Reynolds, Wallace Collection. Catalogue of Miniatures, London, 1980, pp. 20 and 73. NOTES Marie Leszczynska (1703-1768), daughter of King Stanislas Leszczynski of Poland, married Louis XV in 1725 when he was fifteen years old. An almost identical pair of miniatures are in the Wallace Collection, London (M284 and M285; Reynolds, op. cit., illustrated no. 39 and 40) where the portrait of Marie Leszczynska is indistinctly signed Mo. Le Jeune. This work was previously attributed to Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune (1741-1814) but recent research has brought to light the existence of Andr‚-Claude Martin Lefevre d'Orgeval. Lefevre d'Orgeval is listed in the acts of bankruptcy in the Archives de Paris (D. 4B6 carton 23, dossier 1263) and his profession is recorded as Peintre en miniature. Until this discovery, nothing was known about the miniaturist who signed his works Le Feure and who is briefly described by Leo Schidlof as 'a miniaturist in France about 1750' (L. R. Schidlof, The Miniature in Europe, Graz, 1964, I, p. 480). Lefevre d'Orgeval is recorded as living at the quai Pelletier, in the Parish of Saint-Germain and was declared bankrupt on 8 March 1763. His list of badly paying clients including many of the leading aristocracy of the day; the duc de Brancas, the Prince of Anhalt, the princesse de Rohan, the princesse de Guemen‚e, the comte d'Egmont, Lord Hamilton and many others. It is tempting to believe that within this circle, Lefevre d'Orgeval would have also received Royal commissions. These miniatures are painted after the portraits traditionally attributed to Jean-Baptiste Van Loo in the Mus‚e de Versailles (inventory nos. 2175 and 3754), painted circa 1725.