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| Title | Portrait of Madame Isaac de Thellusson | |
| Collection | English Heritage (Brodsworth Hall) | |
| Artist | Largillière, Nicolas de (French painter and draftsman, 1656-1746) | |
| Date | 1725 (dated) | |
| Signed | yes | |
| Description | Nicolas de Largillière was born in Paris, trained in Antwerp and London, and then established himself in Paris, becoming one of the most successful portrait painters of the era. He was twice the director of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. This three-quarter length portrait shows the sitter, Sarah Le Boullenger (1700-1769), mother of the first owner of the Brodsworth estate, facing the viewer and posing against a column and a blue curtain. She wears a powdered wig and is dressed in a saffron-coloured silk robe over a lace-trimmed chemise. | |
| Current Accession Number | 90006927 | |
| Inscription | front cl 'Peint. Par./N. de. Largilliere/1725' | |
| Subject | portrait (Thellusson, Madame Isaac de) | |
| Measurements | 137.5 x 104 cm.0 cm (estimate) | |
| Material | oil on canvas | |
| Acquisition Details | Transferred to English Heritage 1990. | |
| Provenance | Commissioned by Isaac de Thellusson; by descent to Peter Thellusson by 1761-69; by descent to Charles Sabine Augustus Thellusson before 1885; by descent to Pamela Williams; purchased by National Heritage Memorial Fund, 1990. | |
| Publications | Dars, C., Catalogue of Paintings in British Collections: English Heritage etc., London, 1993, cat. no. 59, p. 29. | |
| Notes | The sitter, Sarah Le Boullenger (1700-1769), daughter of Abraham Le Boullenger of Leiden, married Isaac de Thellusson (1690-1755) in 1722. Their youngest son, Peter (1737-1797), came to England in 1761, in which year he was naturalised by Act of Parliament (presumably then dropping the 'de' from his name). He subsequently bought the Brodsworth estate. The work was first recorded at Brodsworth Hall in Charles Sabine Augustus Thellusson's posthumous inventory of 1885 as in the library ('Portrait of a lady by Largillierre [sic]'). It was still in the library at the time of the 1931 inventory ('[Oil painting] Portrait of Lady, by Largilliere') and the 1952 inventory ('1 Portrait of a lady by Largillierre [sic] gilt frame). | |
| Rights Owner | © English Heritage Photo Library | |
| Author | Richard Green | |