(Paris 1715 – Paris 1767)
Portrait of Monsieur du Chastellier
Pastel on paper mounted on canvas
75 x 60 cm
Signed and dated L.Vigé pinxit 1744
Period Louis XV Frame
Provenance: Colonel Gustave Poterat de Billy (1840-1924) (old label on the back of the canvas “Colonel de Billy”) ; Private collection, Belgium
Bibliography: Neil Jeffares, Dictionnary of Pastelists before 1800, Louis Vigée, n°J.758.195 “M. Duchastellier, pstl, 1744 (M. de Billy, Colonel in the 33rd Infantry Regiment). Exh: Arras, 1896, no. 190”
Exposition : Exposition Rétrospective des arts et monuments du Pas-de-Calais, Arras, 20 May -21 June 1896, catalogue by Henri Loriquet, no. 190 in the catalogue “M. du Chastellier,” pastel by “L.Vigé 1744, 0m73x0m54.”
Better known today as the father of the celebrated portraitist Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Louis Vigée was the son of Alexandre Vigée (sometimes spelled Vigé or Viger), and the godson of sculptor Pierre Poissant. This latter participated actively in his artistic education, as well as in that of his brother, Nicolas-Alexandre, a sculptor as well, who Tessin arranged to have come to Stockholm.
We know little about the early career of Louis Vigée, nor do we know when he began using pastels, but it is certain that he did so long before his first dated works, from 1742, which demonstrate great mastery of this demanding medium, as well as an already very accomplished style.
We know few works by him in oil, but thanks to the writings of his daughter, we know that he did paintings in the style of Watteau and Pater, which today have regrettably been lost.
A close friend of Doyen, he was, throughout his life, influenced by works by the portraitist Louis Tocqué, and his pastels—faithful and spirited—allowed him to acquire his clientele early in his career. Among his clients, we find at once members of the aristocracy, politicians and financiers but also artists like Beaumarchais and the sculptor Jacques-Charles Martin, and actresse.
Because of his connections in society and his affluence, he only applied rather late to the Académie de Saint-Luc, where he was accepted in 1743. He was made a member at the same time as Jacques-Charles Allais, Glain and Claude Mercier, with whom he sometimes shared models.
The Salons de l’Académie de Saint-Luc having only been founded in 1751, the beginnings of these artists are less well-documented than those of the Académie Royale, and we have relatively few precise elements about his career. A certain number of his portraits were engraved, in particular by Jean-Georges Wille and Jacques-Louis Touzé.
Louis Vigée exhibited regularly at the Salon from 1751 to 1764, and most of his portraits are today in private collections. Among works in museum collection, we would note Madame Favard in a Capelet, from 1745, at the National Museum of Stockholm and the portrait of the great Swiss industrialist Jean-Jacques Deluze at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire of Neuchâtel.
In his work Le Portrait en France (1909), the Belgian critic Louis Dumont-Wilden described Vigée this way: “This excellent painter, not widely nor well known, was completely dwarfed by the reputation of his daughter, Mme Vigée-Lebrun. We know almost nothing about him, and most of his works have in all likelihood been attributed to more illustrious masters than he in the public and private collections in which they figure. The rare portraits that we have by him are very lively, and in truly exquisite taste: that is, moreover, what allowed a great many collectors to attribute them to La Tour.”
Artists working in pastel, midway between drawings and paintings, were indeed, for a long time forgotten by art historians. They have today little by little been rediscovered, particularly thanks to the research carried out by the specialist Neil Jeffares. Xavier Salmon, Conservateur des Dessins at the Louvre, devoted a large exhibition to them in 2018 “En Société, Pastels du Louvre des 17e et 18e siècles,” followed last year, at the Musée d’Orsay, by “Pastels de Millet à Redon.”
Our elegant portrait of a gentleman is dated 1744, or just after Vigée had been accepted to the Académie de Saint-Luc. As much by the figure’s nobility as by its large format (75 x 60 cm), infrequent in the artist’s work, are evidence of the important status of the model. Shown in a dynamic pose, his body turned three-quarters to face the viewer, the figure is wearing a long, curly wig, a blue waistcoat under a grey velvet coat, and a necktie with a magnificent lace jabot. The treatment of the face was an object of very particular attention, with subtle crosshatching used to render the contours of the face. His hand is slipped negligently in his waistcoat—a recurrent motif with Vigée, as is the good-natured air of the model—and his air of contentedness gives our elegant portrait a very distinctive presence.
We know the name of our model thanks to the exhibition catalogue from the exhibition to which Monsieur de Billy loaned our pastel in 1896. While we know that this is a Monsieur du Chastellier, on the other hand, it is difficult to establish with certainty the exact identity of the person, since there are two men who correspond in age and in social status to the model. It is possible that it is Joachim de Chastellier-Dumesnil (1700-1764), courtier, military man and diplomat, nicknamed “Le Beau Dumesnil,” who was the subject of a monograph in 2022 (Fadi el Hage, ”Le Beau Dumesnil. Un serviteur de l’ombre sous le règne de Louis XV,” Paris, l’Harmattan). Lieutenant General of the King’s Armies in 1748, eloquent and seductive, Joachim de Chastellier remains famous for his diplomatic missions, in particular one to the court of Frédéric II, and for his numerous highly influential friends. Rémy Duchastellier might also be the man portrayed here. Inspecteur aux Invalides in 1719, and Premier Commis des Bâtiments du Roi at his death, in 1750, he had been the tutor of the children of the King’s Sculptor, Jacques Rousseau, in 1715, and it is entirely possible that he came in contact with Vigée’s circle during this period.
Finally, while the signature “Vigé,” and not Vigée may be surprising, as it is unusual for the artist, it is not unique. The very beautiful Portrait of the Artist’s Mother (Madame Alexandre Vigée), San Francisco (FAM, Inv. 1999.56.32) is signed “Sketch of my mother by her son Vigé the Younger 1744,” the same year as our portrait.
We are very grateful to Monsieur Neil Jeffares for his aid in writing these notes.