Lot 29: Pierre Pasquier (French, 1731-1806)

Marie Thérèse de Savoie, Comtesse d'Artois (1756-1805), as Flora, wearing loose white robes and pink shawl, her powdered hair dressed with ears of corn and blue flowers, she holds in her right hand a posy of pink and blue flowers and ears of corn
enamel, signed on counter-enamel and dated Madame la Comtesse/ D'Artois/ Par Pasquier 1778
Oval, 55mm. (2 1/8ins.) high

Marie Thérèse, daughter of Victor-Amédée III, King of Sardinia and grand-daughter of Philip V of Spain. In 1773, she married Charles-Philippe Count of Artois, later Charles X of France. Timid and retiring, she detested Court life. She did not cope well with her turbulent and frivolous husband, but gave him four children (the Dukes of Angouleme and of Berry and two daughters who died young). Abandoned by her husband, she found comfort in the arms of her bodyguard. In 1786, to escape the formality of Court, she rented a property near the château of Saint-Cloud, formerly called the Pavillon de l'Electeur. She finally fled France in 1789.