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| Title | Portrait of a Lady Dressed in Silver | |
| Alternative Title | Portrait of a Lady Dressed in a White Dress | |
| Original Translation | Portrait d'une Dame | |
| Collection | Bury Art Gallery, Museum & Archives | |
| Artist | Belle, Alexis-Simon (French painter, 1674-1734) | |
| Date | 1718 (dated) | |
| Signed | yes | |
| Description | This lady's identity is unknown but she could well have been a member of the French court or a supporter of the exiled Stuarts seeking their restoration to the British throne. After his apprenticeship to the portrait painter Francois de Troy, Belle exhibited for the first time at the Salon in 1704. He became established as a court painter, executing numerous portraits of members of the French court from 1703. He also served the court of the exiled Stuarts at Saint Germain en Laye and through his Jacobite connections received commissions from English patrons sympathetic to the Stuart cause. | |
| Current Accession Number | BUYGM:0637:1950 | |
| Inscription | front ll 'Peint par Belle, 1718' | |
| Subject | portrait (female) | |
| Measurements | 208 x 147 cm (estimate) | |
| Material | oil on canvas | |
| Acquisition Details | Purchased from Thomas Agnew & Sons 1950. | |
| Provenance | Berwick sale, Christie's, London, 21 October, 1949 | |
| Publications | Camus, Fabien, 'Alexis-Simon Belle: Portraitiste de Cour (1674-1734)', Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français, 1991, p. 40. | |
| Notes | References: Messelet, J., 'Belle 1674 à 1734' in Dimier, L., Les Peintres Français du XVIIe Siècle, Paris & Brussels, 1930, vol.II, p. 289; 'Alexis-Simon Belle (1674-1734): Peintre de Jaques III et des Jacobites', Revue de la Bibliothèque Nationale, 46, winter 1992, pp. 50-57. | |
| Rights Owner | Bury Art Gallery Museum and Archive | |
| Author | Lisa Howard | |