curatorial

Who is this shepherdess with so delicate a complexion
With a roguish eye, a childlike mouth? . . .
It is you, young Gramont; even with this disguise
You have not lost the features of an Angel . . . ¹D. P. D. J. [André Chénier], “Sur le Portrait de Mme la Comtesse de Gramont Caderousse, peinte en Vendangeuse au Salon, par Mme Le Brun,” Journal de Paris, no. 239 (August 27, 1785): 987. The historian Gaston Deschamps identified the author by name. See Gaston Deschamps, “Les Portraits de M. de Calonne,” La Revue de Paris 2 (March 15, 1926): 384.

Marie Gabrielle de Sinety (1761–1832), the twenty-three-year-old comtesse de Caderousse whose beguiling portrait by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun inspired the lines above, was born in Paris on March 9, 1761, most likely in her parents’ apartment in the Palais-Royal.²The letter “e” in the comtesse de Caderousse’s maiden name, Sinety, is sometimes incorrectly written with an acute accent, as “Sinéty.” Period sources, including the Salon of 1785, cite the sitter as the comtesse de Gramont Caderousse. This is the present author’s preference. However, many other period sources cite the sitter as Marie de Gramont, Comtesse Caderousse. See, for example, Histoire et Généalogie de la Maison de Gramont (Paris: Schlesinger Frères, 1874), 6, “C’est à tort . . . que l’on désigne quelquefois le Duc de Caderousse sous le nom de Duc de Gramont-Caderousse, car il n’y a pas de Duché de ce nom en France, mais bien seulement le Duché de Caderousse.” She was baptized in the nearby church of Saint-Roch. Her father, André Louis Marie, marquis de Sinety (1712–1773), had been in the retinue of noblemen surrounding Louis, duc d’Orleans (1703–1752). Marie Gabrielle’s mother, Marie Anne de Ravenal (ca. 1730–1797), descended from a line of financiers and civil servants whose great wealth enabled them to marry her to a member of the hereditary aristocracy, and this union placed her at the top of France’s social pyramid. Thus, Marie Gabrielle had family ties to the painters, art patrons, and financiers belonging to the powerful de Boullongne³The most extensive study of the Boullongne family remains comte Amédée de Caix de Saint-Aymour, Une famille d’artistes et de financiers au XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles: Les Boullongne (Paris: Henri Laurens, 1919). and Richard clans.

Fig. 1. French School, Portrait of André Joseph Hippolyte, marquis de Gramont Vachères, comte de Gramont Caderousse and later duc de Caderousse (1761–1817), ca. 1778, oil on canvas, 25 5/8 x 21 5/8 in. (65 x 55 cm), private collection

fullscreen

Although we do not know who commissioned this portrait of the comtesse de Caderousse, it is likely that the sitter or a family member asked Vigée Le Brun to paint her likeness in 1784, one year after Vigée Le Brun received full membership in the French Académie royale as a peintre du roi (painter to the king, or court painter).¹¹Using a pointed instrument, the artist scratched her signature and the date “1784” on the ledge at the lower right. The portrait was copied or pastiched a number of times. Five miniature copies of it are known, some of which were undoubtedly made as mementos for family or friends. For a comprehensive list, see “Copies” in the menu below. In 1786, the miniaturist Antoine Vestier (1740–1824) recycled the pose and the basket of grapes in his portrait of Madame Hamon des Roches de Bournay, née Agathe Françoise de Lorne. See Anne-Marie Passez, Antoine Vestier, 1740–1824 (Paris: Fondation Wildenstein, 1989), cat. no. 52. According to the list of Vigée Le Brun’s sitters for the year 1784, she painted nine portraits, including that of the comtesse de Caderousse.¹²The nine in her list are: “1 M. le comte de Vaudreuil / 5 Copies du même / 1 La comtesse de Grammont-Caderousse / 1 Madame la comtesse de Serre / 1 M. de Beaujon.” See Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Souvenirs de Madame Louise-Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, de l’Académie Royale de Paris, de Rouen, de Saint-Luc de Rome et d’Arcadie, de Parme et de Bologne, de Saint-Pétersbourg, de Berlin, de Genève et Avignon (Paris: H[enri] Fournier, 1835), 1:332. The portrait of the comte de Vaudreuil is now in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 49.11.21; the portrait of the comtesse de Serre is in the Toledo Museum of Art, 1966.33. The current location of the portrait of M. de Beaujon is unknown, but a pastel study of it is in a private collection; see Joseph Baillio, &lquoQuelques peintures réattribuées à Vigée Le Brun,” Gazette des beaux-arts 99 (January 1982): 13–26; and Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800 (London: Unicorn Press, 2006).

Fig. 2. Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of Susanna Lunden(?) (Le Chapeau de Paille), probably 1622–1625, oil on oak, 31 1/8 x 21 1/2 in. (79 x 54.6 cm), The National Gallery, London, Inventory number NG852

fullscreen

Vigée Le Brun portrayed Madame de Caderousse in a pastoral version of what was then known as “Spanish dress,” so-called for its black-and-red color scheme, and its stylings that the English called “Van Dyke dress” after the seventeenth-century Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641). Madame de Caderousse wears a tightly corseted black velvet bodice with sleeves attached to each other with scarlet-red satin ribbons at the shoulder in bows that nearly match her skirt.¹⁶Tired of fashions emulating ancient styles of Greek and Roman dress, French artistic patron Madame Geoffrin (1699–1777) encouraged artists to look for another European style that achieved a similar link to the past. Spain represented a faraway exotic land where styles of dress from the seventeenth century found form in current dress. Pierre Beaumarchais’s plays, including The Barber of Seville (1775) and The Marriage of Figaro (1784) continued to popularize these styles in the 1780s. See Ribeiro, The Art of Dress, 163–65. To protect her fair skin from the sun, Marie Gabrielle wears a wide-brimmed straw hat under which is a voluminous kerchief of sheer muslin that falls to her bosom in the manner of a fichufichu: French for “thrown over.” A small triangular shawl, worn around a woman’s shoulders and neck.. Vigée Le Brun emphasizes the most sensual qualities of her young subject’s beauty. A captivating, open-lipped smile partially reveals the comtesse de Caderousse’s teeth, an innovation that other portraitists, such as Jean Antoine Houdon (1741–1828) and Jacques Louis David (1748–1825)—and Parisian artists in general by the mid-eighteenth century—began to explore. Before then, people posed close-lipped not only out of a sense of decorum but also to mask their bad teeth. However, by the 1760s, a new culture of sensibility had emerged that privileged displays of emotion as markers of an individual’s humanity and an awareness of how others perceived them. Indeed, to smile a truthful, natural smile, whether in person or as represented in a portrait, signaled that you were a person of taste and, above all, of feeling.¹⁷See Colin Jones, The Smile Revolution in Eighteenth Century Paris (London: Oxford University Press, 2014). Like her alluring smile, the comtesse’s gaze was meant to make her appear more engaging to the viewers she so directly confronts.

Fig. 3. Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat, 1782, oil on wood, 37 3/8 x 27 1/8 in. (95 x 68.5 cm), Collection of Baronne Nadine de Rothschild, Château de Pregny, Switzerland

fullscreen

I could not stand the use of powder. I persuaded the beautiful Duchess de Grammont-Cadrousse [sic] not to put any on her hair when sitting for her portrait. Her hair was as black as ebony, and I divided it up into irregular curls on her forehead. The sitting ended at dinnertime; and when it was over, the duchess went to the theater without rearranging her hair. Such a beautiful woman was sure to set the fashion—the style caught on slowly, and then was widely followed.¹⁸“Je ne pouvais souffrir la poudre. J’obtins de la belle duchesse de Grammont-Cadrousse [sic] qu’elle n’en mettrait pas pour se faire peindre; ses cheveux était d’un noir d’ébène; je les séparai sur le front, arrangés en boucles irréguliers. Après une séance, qui finissait à l’heure du dîner, la duchesse ne dérangeait rien à sa coiffure et allait ainsi au spectacle; une aussi jolie femme devait donner le ton. Cette mode prit doucement, puis devint enfin général.” Vigée Le Brun, Souvenirs, 1:53. The historian Pierre de Nolhac recounts the story somewhat differently: “The beautiful Duchess of Gramont-Caderousse went to dinner at the home of the duke de Laval without powdering her hair and dressed as a Provençal peasant girl; and since it was such a success, the queen brought her to the [Petit] Trianon one afternoon to see her in her costume.” [“La belle duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse a paru à souper chez le duc de Laval, coiffée sans poudre et costume en paysanne proven­çale; comme elle y a eu grand succès, la Reine l’a fait venir à Trianon, un après-midi, pour lui voir porter son costume.”] See Pierre de Nolhac, Marie-Antoinette (Paris: Plon, 1936), 185.

Similarly, when the SalonSalon, the: Exhibitions organized by the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture) and its successor the Academy of Fine Arts (Académie des Beaux Arts), which took place in Paris from 1667 onward. opened its doors on August 25, 1785, thecritical reception of the Nelson-Atkins picture was almost unanimously positive. Most writers who commented on it stressed the seductiveness, the very physicality of the image, and its subtle erotic charge. For example, Barthélemy François Joseph Mouffle d’Angerville, the author of the accounts of the Salon published in the Mémoires secrets, suggested that the model was actually on the lookout for an amorous adventure.¹⁹[d’Angerville], “Seconde Lettre [Sur les peintures, sculptures et gravures exposées au Salon du Louvre le 25 août 1785],” Mémoires Secrets (London: John Adamson, 1786), 30:183–86. The Mémoires secrets were an anonymous chronicle of events in France that occurred between 1762 and 1787. Another critic, the abbé Soulavie, praised the artist’s uncanny ability to render the finely nuanced facial expressions of her models.²⁰[Jean Louis Giraud-Soulavie], Réflexions Impartiales sur les Progrès de l’Art en France, et sur les Tableaux Exposés au Louvre, par ordre du Roi, en 1785 (London, 1785), 31. Yet another, in both verse and prose, commented on the freshness of her complexion, capable of attracting the wandering eyes of young men visiting the crowded Salon.²¹Impromptu sur le Sallon des Tableaux Exposés au Louvre en 1785: Dialogue en vers (London: Cailleau, [1785?]), 9.

Indeed, the painting has not lost anything to change, and it is in a nearly perfect state of preservation.²²A copy of a treatment report drafted by the New York conservator Frank Zuccari for the art dealers Clyde Newhouse and Guy Stair-Sainty on May 3, 1985, is preserved in the NAMA curatorial files, as is a condition report made for the museum in 1986 by Forrest R. Bailey. See also the technical entry by Diana M. Jaskierny. The wooden support upon which Vigée Le Brun painted is made up of five vertically joined planks of oak and has never been cradledcradle: A grid-like wooden structure attached to the reverse of a panel by a restorer to prevent warping.. It was prepared with coats of light primingpriming layer: An opaque preparatory layer applied to the support, either commercially or by the artist, to prevent absorption of the paint into the canvas or panel. See also ground layer. that imparts a certain brilliance to the overall effect, leaving critics today singing similar praises.

Notes

1. D. P. D. J. [André Chénier], “Sur le Portrait de Mme la Comtesse de Gramont Caderousse, peinte en Vendangeuse au Salon, par Mme Le Brun,” Journal de Paris, no. 239 (August 27, 1785): 987. The historian Gaston Deschamps identified the author by name. See Gaston Deschamps, “Les Portraits de M. de Calonne,” La Revue de Paris 2 (March 15, 1926): 384.

2. The letter “e” in the comtesse de Caderousse’s maiden name, Sinety, is sometimes incorrectly written with an acute accent, as “Sinéty.” Period sources, including the Salon of 1785, cite the sitter as the comtesse de Gramont Caderousse. This is the present author’s preference. However, many other period sources cite the sitter as Marie de Gramont, Comtesse Caderousse. See, for example, Histoire et Généalogie de la Maison de Gramont (Paris: Schlesinger Frères, 1874), 6, “C’est à tort . . . que l’on désigne quelquefois le Duc de Caderousse sous le nom de Duc de Gramont-Caderousse, car il n’y a pas de Duché de ce nom en France, mais bien seulement le Duché de Caderousse.”

3. The most extensive study of the Boullongne family remains comte Amédée de Caix de Saint-Aymour, Une famille d’artistes et de financiers au XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles: Les Boullongne (Paris: Henri Laurens, 1919).

4. Among Gramont-Vachères’s other nobiliary titles were marquis de Codolet, comte de Sézanne, baron du Thor and Velorgues, and seigneur de Montelard, Vaugelas, Pelourson, Chapeau Cornu, Vignière, Areisse, Vasselin, Coyrol, Frigoulets and Cabrière, and Governor of the town of Crest and its medieval tower.

5. In a heretofore unpublished bust-length portrait of him (see Fig. 1), which must have been painted shortly before his marriage, he wears the elegant uniform of the king’s military household guard and the small enamel cross of the order of Malta, of which he was a member until his marriage. Marielle Legros, of the Association française des Membres de l’Ordre Souverain de Malte in Paris, informed the author (in an email dated November 6, 2008) that André Joseph Hippolyte de Gramont-Vachères was made a knight of Malta when he was only two years old.

6. The contract was drawn up on January 31, 1779, by the notary Jean Baptiste Dupré; a first draft of it is preserved in the Minutier Central des Archives nationales de France, Paris, inv. no. Étude XCIII, doc. 506.

7. Prominent among the women of the queen’s immediate entourage were the princesse de Lamballe, the duchesse de Polignac, the duchesse de Guiche and the comtesse de Polastron, all of whom had their portraits painted by Vigée Le Brun.

8. Their residence in Paris may have been the seventeenth-century Hôtel de Gramont Caderousse, at 24 rue de Condé; or the Sinetys’ apartment in the Palais-Royal. The village of Caderousse, which is now in the department of the Vaucluse, is near the Rhône river, southwest of the town of Orange. Only insignificant vestiges of the château exist today.

9. The inscription on the verso of the painting, “Marie Gabrielle de Sinety / Marquise de Gramont / Duchesse de Caderousse,” must have been added after the painting was made in 1784 and after the sitter became a duchess in 1800. It may have been added when the painting changed hands.

10. Further genealogical research by the author is available in the NAMA curatorial files.

11. Using a pointed instrument, the artist scratched her signature and the date “1784” on the ledge at the lower right. The portrait was copied or pastiched a number of times. Five miniature copies of it are known, some of which were undoubtedly made as mementos for family or friends. For a comprehensive list, see “Copies” in the menu below. In 1786, the miniaturist Antoine Vestier (1740–1824) recycled the pose and the basket of grapes in his portrait of Madame Hamon des Roches de Bournay, née Agathe Françoise de Lorne. See Anne-Marie Passez, Antoine Vestier, 1740–1824 (Paris: Fondation Wildenstein, 1989), cat. no. 52.

12. The nine in her list are: “1 M. le comte de Vaudreuil / 5 Copies du même / 1 La comtesse de Grammont-Caderousse / 1 Madame la comtesse de Serre / 1 M. de Beaujon.” See Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Souvenirs de Madame Louise-Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, de l’Académie Royale de Paris, de Rouen, de Saint-Luc de Rome et d’Arcadie, de Parme et de Bologne, de Saint-Pétersbourg, de Berlin, de Genève et Avignon (Paris: H[enri] Fournier, 1835), 1:332. The portrait of the comte de Vaudreuil is now in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 49.11.21; the portrait of the comtesse de Serre is in the Toledo Museum of Art, 1966.33. The current location of the portrait of M. de Beaujon is unknown, but a pastel study of it is in a private collection; see Joseph Baillio, “Quelques peintures réattribuées à Vigée Le Brun,” Gazette des beaux-arts 99 (January 1982): 13–26; and Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800 (London: Unicorn Press, 2006).

13. Vigée Le Brun employed the pastoral theme repeatedly prior to the revolution, as, for example, in her portraits of Louis XVI’s youngest sister, Élisabeth of France (1764–1794), known as Madame Élisabeth (the finest known version of this portrait, but certainly not the original painted in 1782, is the unsigned painting today in the Musée national du château de Versailles, inv. no. MV 8143), and the marquise de La Guiche, (private collection, France; reproduced in Pierre de Nolhac, Madame Vigée-Le Brun: Peintre de la Reine Marie Antoinette, 1755–1842 (Paris: Goupil, 1908), facing p. 142), a work shown at the Salon of 1783. In 1786, she created a portrait of the marquise de Puységur similarly attired and holding a water jug (Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, 1951.004.015).

14. Vigée Le Brun saw the Rubens portrait of his sister-in-law, Susanna Lunden, in 1782 in the van Havre collection in Antwerp while touring the Low Countries with her husband, the dealer Jean-Baptiste Pierre Le Brun. See The Memoirs of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, trans. Siân Evans (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1989), 24. This transformative event caused her to refine her technique to an exceptional degree. For more on the dress found in the Rubens portrait and its inspiration of Arcadian costume in French portraits, see Aileen Ribeiro, The Art of Dress: Fashion in England and France, 1750–1820 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), 165.

15. The color contrast of intense black and bright red is one Vigée Le Brun used later in her career, notably in her Portrait of Madame Perregaux (1789) in the Wallace Collection, London, https://wallacelive.wallacecollection.org:443/eMP/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=65391&viewType=detailView, and in her Portrait of Gräfin Maria Theresia Czernin (1793) at the Brooklyn Museum, 2018.53, https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/224328.

16. Tired of fashions emulating ancient styles of Greek and Roman dress, French artistic patron Madame Geoffrin (1699–1777) encouraged artists to look for another European style that achieved a similar link to the past. Spain represented a faraway exotic land where styles of dress from the seventeenth century found form in current dress. Pierre Beaumarchais’s plays, including The Barber of Seville (1775) and The Marriage of Figaro (1784) continued to popularize these styles in the 1780s. See Ribeiro, The Art of Dress, 163–65.

17. See Colin Jones, The Smile Revolution in Eighteenth Century Paris (London: Oxford University Press, 2014).

18. “Je ne pouvais souffrir la poudre. J’obtins de la belle duchesse de Grammont-Cadrousse [sic] qu’elle n’en mettrait pas pour se faire peindre; ses cheveux était d’un noir d’ébène; je les séparai sur le front, arrangés en boucles irréguliers. Après une séance, qui finissait à l’heure du dîner, la duchesse ne dérangeait rien à sa coiffure et allait ainsi au spectacle; une aussi jolie femme devait donner le ton. Cette mode prit doucement, puis devint enfin général.” Vigée Le Brun, Souvenirs, 1:53.

    The historian Pierre de Nolhac recounts the story somewhat differently: “The beautiful Duchess of Gramont-Caderousse went to dinner at the home of the duke de Laval without powdering her hair and dressed as a Provençal peasant girl; and since it was such a success, the queen brought her to the [Petit] Trianon one afternoon to see her in her costume.” [“La belle duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse a paru à souper chez le duc de Laval, coiffée sans poudre et costume en paysanne proven­çale; comme elle y a eu grand succès, la Reine l’a fait venir à Trianon, un après-midi, pour lui voir porter son costume.”] See Pierre de Nolhac, Marie-Antoinette (Paris: Plon, 1936), 185.

19. [d’Angerville], “Seconde Lettre [Sur les peintures, sculptures et gravures exposées au Salon du Louvre le 25 août 1785],” Mémoires Secrets (London: John Adamson, 1786), 30:183–86. The Mémoires secrets were an anonymous chronicle of events in France that occurred between 1762 and 1787.

20. [Jean Louis Giraud-Soulavie], Réflexions Impartiales sur les Progrès de l’Art en France, et sur les Tableaux Exposés au Louvre, par ordre du Roi, en 1785 (London, 1785), 31.

21. Impromptu sur le Sallon des Tableaux Exposés au Louvre en 1785: Dialogue en vers (London: Cailleau, [1785?]), 9.

22. A copy of a treatment report drafted by the New York conservator Frank Zuccari for the art dealers Clyde Newhouse and Guy Stair-Sainty on May 3, 1985, is preserved in the NAMA curatorial files, as is a condition report made for the museum in 1986 by Forrest R. Bailey. See also the technical entry by Diana M. Jaskierny.

conservation

Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse was completed on panel, approximately 1.25 centimeters in thickness, with edges that bevel to 0.6 centimeters in thickness. The panel is composed of four boards, joined by tongue and groove. Two knots are present on the panel boards: one in the sitter’s hair near her proper left temple and another in the right-side background. With one knot in a central board and thus in the center of the composition, it is possible that this selection of wood originally had another intended use, or that the inherent vice of knots in wood was not of great concern to the panel maker or Vigée Le Brun.¹Wood panels with knots tend to be more prone to movement due to humidity, making these areas susceptible to cracks and paint loss. If this panel was made specifically for a Court painting, it implies that the panel maker, Vigée Le Brun, or both may have been unaware of or unconcerned about the severity of damage the central board knot could cause to the paint layer. Alternatively, one could argue that this may have been a pre-manufactured board, possibly originally intended for furniture, and this was the only supply available to Vigée Le Brun at the time of the painting. As with the Nelson-Atkins painting, Mme Perregaux (1789; The Wallace Collection, London) was found to have a side board of good quality and a central board of lesser quality. Jo Hedley, “Vigée Le Brun’s Newly Conserved Portrait of Mme Perregaux in the Wallace Collection,” Burlington Magazine 146 (April 2004): 228. Although it is believed that Vigée Le Brun’s preference for panel paintings stems from her travels to Flanders and Holland in 1781, based on this and other panel paintings by Vigée Le Brun, it is possible she did not have access to superior panel makers known in other European countries.²Hedley, “Vigée Le Brun’s Newly Conserved Portrait of Mme Perregaux in the Wallace Collection,” 228. See also Humphrey Wine, The Eighteenth Century French Paintings (London: National Gallery Company, 2018), 536. On the panel reverse, there is an inscription in black paint naming the sitter.³Written in script, the inscription reads, “Marie Gabrielle de Sinety / Marquise de Gramont / Duchesse de Caderousse”.

Fig. 4. Raking light, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

fullscreen Fig. 4. Raking light, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

Fig. 5. Detail of veil, illustrating the thin paint application that reveals the ground layer, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

fullscreen Fig. 5. Detail of veil, illustrating the thin paint application that reveals the ground layer, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

Fig. 6. Detail of face in raking light, displaying textured brushstrokes, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

fullscreen Fig. 6. Detail of face in raking light, displaying textured brushstrokes, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

Fig. 7. Detail of face, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

fullscreen Fig. 7. Detail of face, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

Fig. 8. Detail of incised signature, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

fullscreen Fig. 8. Detail of incised signature, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

Fig. 9. Detail of pentimento in skirt, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

fullscreen Fig. 9. Detail of pentimento in skirt, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

Fig. 10. Raking light detail of pentimento in bows, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784). The original top of the red bow is visible by the texture in raking light (blue arrow), while the bottom of the bow has become more visible as the white overlaying paint has aged and become translucent (green arrow).

fullscreen Fig. 10. Raking light detail of pentimento in bows, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784). The original top of the red bow is visible by the texture in raking light (blue arrow), while the bottom of the bow has become more visible as the white overlaying paint has aged and become translucent (green arrow).

Fig. 11. Digital photographs in normal viewing light (left) and reflected (right), illustrating artist changes in the hands and arms, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

fullscreen Fig. 11. Digital photographs in normal viewing light (left) and reflected (right), illustrating artist changes in the hands and arms, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

Fig. 12. Photomicrograph of proper left fingers and brown paint visible in drying cracks, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

fullscreen Fig. 12. Photomicrograph of proper left fingers and brown paint visible in drying cracks, Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Comtesse de Caderousse (1784)

Notes

1. Wood panels with knots tend to be more prone to movement due to humidity, making these areas susceptible to cracks and paint loss. If this panel was made specifically for a Court painting, it implies that the panel maker, Vigée Le Brun, or both may have been unaware of or unconcerned about the severity of damage the central board knot could cause to the paint layer. Alternatively, one could argue that this may have been a pre-manufactured board, possibly originally intended for furniture, and this was the only supply available to Vigée Le Brun at the time of the painting. As with the Nelson-Atkins painting, Mme Perregaux (1789; The Wallace Collection, London) was found to have a side board of good quality and a central board of lesser quality. Jo Hedley, “Vigée Le Brun’s Newly Conserved Portrait of Mme Perregaux in the Wallace Collection,” Burlington Magazine 146 (April 2004): 228.

2. Hedley, “Vigée Le Brun’s Newly Conserved Portrait of Mme Perregaux in the Wallace Collection,” 228. See also Humphrey Wine, The Eighteenth Century French Paintings (London: National Gallery Company, 2018), 536.

3. Written in script, the inscription reads, “Marie Gabrielle de Sinety / Marquise de Gramont / Duchesse de Caderousse”.

4. This exposed ground is approximately 5–6 millimeters around all four edges; however, retouching does cover some of these areas to prevent its visibility when the painting is framed. This border was also found on the Wallace Collection’s Mme Perregaux (1789). Hedley, “Vigée Le Brun’s Newly Conserved Portrait of Mme Perregaux in the Wallace Collection,” 230.

5. This technique is reminiscent of that of Rubens, an artist Vigée Le Brun idolized. Unlike his canvas paintings which often have dark grounds, Rubens used light grounds on panel paintings to “give luminosity to thinly-glazed areas of the picture.” Joyce Plesters, “‘Samson and Delilah’: Rubens and the Art and Craft of Painting on Panel,” National Gallery Technical Bulletin 7 (1983): 36.

6. The Memoirs of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, trans. Siân Evans (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1989), 356–57.

7. A similar incised signature is present on Portrait of Mrs. Chinnery (1803; Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN). Julie Ribits, paintings conservator, personal communication, August 31, 2020.

8. For more examples of pentimenti found in Vigée Le Brun paintings, see Wine, The Eighteenth Century French Paintings, 523, 536.

9. Rembrandt Retouching Varnish is composed of Laropal K80, a ketone resin. This type of varnish is known to autoxidize rapidly and become brittle with age, leading to cracking and a hazy appearance. Mary Schafer, April 22, 2011, technical examination report, Nelson-Atkins conservation file, no. 86-20. See also René de la Rie and Alexander Shedrinsky, “The Chemistry of Ketone Resins and the Synthesis of a Derivative with Increased Stability and Flexibility,” Studies in Conservation 34 (1989): 9–19.

provenance

Probably commissioned from the artist by Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, comtesse de Caderousse (née de Sinety, 1761–1832), and/or her husband, André Joseph Hippolyte de Gramont-Vachères, comte de Caderousse (1761–1817), Château de Caderousse, Caderousse, France, 1784–April 24, 1832 [1];

Probably inherited by her brother, André Louis Marie de Sinety, 2nd marquis de Lurcy-Lévis (1758–1832), Lurcy-Lévis and Paris, France, 1832 [2];

Probably by descent to his son, André Louis Marie Théogène, 3rd marquis de Sinety (1788–1846), France, 1832–November 8, 1846 [3];

Probably inherited by his brother, André Louis Woldemar Alphée, 4th marquis de Sinety (1791–1868), Château de Misy, Misy-sur-Yonne, France, 1846–January 13, 1868;

By descent to his son, Alexandre-André-Marie-Elzéar, 5th marquis de Sinety (1820–1905), Château de Misy, Misy-sur-Yonne, France, 1868–April 15, 1905;

By descent to his son, Armande-Marie-Albert, 6th marquis de Sinety (1852–1923), Château de Misy, Misy-sur-Yonne, France, 1905–November 29 or 30, 1923;

By descent to his son, Henry-André-Marie-Anatole, 7th marquis de Sinety (1887–1980), Château de Misy, Misy-sur-Yonne, France, 1923–ca. 1979;

By descent to his son, André-Cœur-Marie-Gérard, 8th marquis de Sinety (1924–2013), Château de Misy, Misy-sur-Yonne, France, ca. 1979–1984 [4];

Sold by the latter at Importants Tableaux Anciens et Modernes, Nouveau Drouot, Paris, November 28, 1984, lot 21, as La Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse en vendangeuse, and purchased by Newhouse Galleries and Stair Sainty Matthiesen on joint account, New York, 1984–1986;

Purchased from Newhouse Galleries and Stair Sainty Matthiesen by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1986.

Notes

[1] The name Gramont is sometimes spelled with a second m, as it appears in the Salon catalogue. However, genealogical research supports the spelling we have adopted; see letter from Joseph Baillio to Roger Ward, August 25, 1986, NAMA curatorial files. The name Sinety appears both with and without an accent sign over the e in the literature. Since the sitter’s birth certificate omits any accents, we have done so as well. Also the sitter’s first name is sometimes hyphenated, but again, since the birth certificate omits accents, we have done so as well; see documentation in NAMA curatorial files. Although Marie Gabrielle is often described as a duchess in the literature, she did not attain this title until the death of her father-in-law, Marie Philippe Guillaume de Gramont-Vachères, in 1800. The portrait’s title and provenance thus reflect the sitter’s social status at the time of commissioning.

[2] The earliest documentation of this portrait’s provenance within the Sinety family dates to 1895, at which time it belonged to the 5th marquis de Sinety. However, genealogical research strongly suggests that the painting passed to André Louis Marie de Sinety, Marie-Gabrielle’s brother, at the time of her death. As he passed away on October 18, 1832, he only owned the painting for six months.

[3] André Louis Marie Théogène de Sinety never married and had no children. Documentation received from Newhouse Galleries and Stair-Sainty Matthiesen at the time of purchase indicated that he resided at the Château de Misy. However, it was his younger brother, André Louis Woldemar Alphée, who married the sole heir to this château, Alexandrine Marie Joséphine de Brion, in 1819. See Maurice Pignard-Péguet, Seine-et-Marne: Histoire Générale Illustrée des Départements depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’à nos jours (Orléans: Auguste Gout et Cie, 1911), 384–85.

[4] Documentation received from Newhouse Galleries and Stair-Sainty Matthiesen at the time of purchase indicated that the painting had passed to the 9th marquis de Sinety before being sold at auction. However, it was the 8th marquis who put it up for sale after being contacted by a scholar seeking to publish the portrait as a comparative figure in an exhibition catalogue. See letter from Joseph Baillio to Brigid M. Boyle, July 22, 2014, NAMA curatorial files.

copies

Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin (1759–1832), untitled drawing, ca. 1785–1790, pen and ink, sepia, heightened with white, on paper, 3 3/16 in. (8.2 cm) diam., location unknown, illustrated in European Silver, Miniatures and Objects of Vertu (Geneva: Christie’s, 1987), 79.

Attributed to Augustin Dubourg (1758–1800), A Lady, 1786, ivory miniature, 3 in. (7.6 cm) diam., private collection, illustrated in Centuries of Style: Silver, European Ceramics, Portrait Miniatures and Gold Boxes (Christie’s: London, 2014), 6, 81.

Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin (1759–1832), Marie-Gabrielle de Sinety, duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse, 1790–1791, watercolor and gouache ivory miniature, mounted on a gold-rimmed tortoiseshell snuff box, 2 13/16 in. (7.2 cm) diam., Musée Condé, Chantilly.

Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin (1759–1832; former. attr. Michel-Jean-Maximilien Villers, active 1788–1804, died ca. 1836), Portrait of a Lady, 1795, ivory miniature, 3 1/8 in (8.0 cm) diam., sold at The Pohl-Ströher Collection of Portrait Miniatures Part II (London: Sotheby’s, July 4, 2019), no. 92, p. 60.

Huvert, ivory miniature, framed dims. 9 1/16 x 7 7/8 in (23 x 20 cm), location unknown, illustrated in Art Russe (Paris: Olivier Coutau-Bégarie, 2008), 85.

Unknown artist, after Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, probably late 18th century, watercolor and gouache ivory miniature, private collection, Paris, cited in Nicole Garnier-Pelle et al., Portraits des maisons royales et impériales de France et d’Europe: Les miniatures du musée Condé à Chantilly (Paris: Somogy éditions d’art, 2007), 234.

Unknown artist, after Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Sinéty, Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse, oil on canvas, 34 x 25 3/4 in. (86.5 x 65.5 cm), location unknown, illustrated in Old Master Paintings (New York: Sotheby’s, April 7, 1989), unpaginated.

Possibly Antoine Vestier (1740–1824), after Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Portrait de Madame Saint-Aubin, de l’Opéra-Comique, probably late 18th or early 19th century, location unknown, cited in Catalogue des Tableaux Anciens, Principalement de l’École Française Composant la Collection de M. H . . . (Paris: Hôtel Drouot, February 14, 1870), 15.

Salon de 1785, Salon du Louvre, Paris, August 25–end of September, 1785, no. 91, as M.^de la Comtesse de Grammont [sic] Caderousse.

French 18th-Century Painting, Newhouse Galleries, New York, closed October 14, 1985, unnumbered.

A Bountiful Decade: Selected Acquisitions 1977–1987, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, October 14–December 6, 1987, no. 66, as Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Vigée Lebrun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France, Grand Palais, Paris, September 23, 2015–January 11, 2016; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, February 15–May 15, 2016; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June 10–September 11, 2016, no. 29, as The Comtesse de Gramont Caderousse Gathering Grapes (New York and Ottawa only).

references

Explication des Peintures, Sculptures et Gravures de Messieurs de l’Académie Royale, Dont l’Exposition a été ordonné, suivant l’intention de Sa Majesté, par M. le Comte de la Billardrie d’Angiviller, Conseiller du Roi en ses Conseils, Mestre-de-Camp de Cavalerie, Chevalier de l’Ordre Royal et Militaire de S. Louis, Commandeur de l’Ordre de S. Lazare, Gouverneur de Rambouillet, Intendant du Jardin du Roi, Directeur et Ordonnateur-Général des Bâtimens de Sa Majesté, Jardins, Arts, Académies et Manufactures Royales; de l’Académie Royale des Sciences, exh. cat. (Paris: Hérissant, 1785), 27, as M.^de la Comtesse de Grammont [sic] Caderousse.

D. P. D. J. [André Chénier], “Sur le Portrait de M^me la Comtesse de Gramont Caderousse, peinte en Vendangeuse au Salon, par M^me Le Brun,” Journal de Paris, no. 239 (August 27, 1785): 987.

M[ichel] de C[ubières-Palmézeaux], “Belles-Lettres: Vers Sur l’Exposition des Tableaux, au Salon du Louvre,” Journal de Paris, no. 245 (September 2, 1785): 1012, 1012n2.

“Suite du compte-rendu du Salon de 1785: De Machy, Duplessis, Hubert Robert, Julliar, Mme Vallayer-Coster, Callet, Berthellemy, Van Spaendonck, Vincent, Hue, Sauvage, Mme Le Brun,” (November 1785; repr. in Maurice Tourneaux, ed., Correspondance Littéraire, Philosophique et Critique par Grimm, Diderot, Raynal, Meister, etc., Paris: Garnier Frères, 1880), 14:274, as M^me de Gramont-Caderousse.

Possibly Mammès Claude Pahin de la Blancherie, Nouvelles de la République des Lettres et des Arts (1785): 46:367.

L[ouis] B[onnefoy] d[e] B[ouyon], Minos au Sallon, ou la Gazette Infernale (Gattières, France: Hardouin et Gattey, 1785), Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 345, p. 21, as M^de La Comtesse de Grammont [sic] Caderousse.

[Jean Louis Giraud Soulavie], Réflexions Impartiales sur les Progrès de l’Art en France, et sur les Tableaux Exposés au Louvre, par ordre du Roi, en 1785 (London, 1785), 31, as Portrait de Madame la Comtesse de Grammont [sic].

[Antoine Joseph Gorsas], Deuxième Promenades de Critès au Sallon (London: Marchands de Nouveautés, 1785), Bibliothèque nationale de France, Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, nos. 333–35, pp. 15–16.

Impromptu sur le Sallon des Tableaux Exposés au Louvre en 1785. Dialogue en vers (London: Cailleau, [1785?]), 9.

[Barthélemy François Joseph Mouffle d’Angerville], “Seconde Lettre [Sur les peintures, sculptures et gravures exposées au Salon du Louvre le 25 août 1785],” Mémoires Secrets pour Servir à l’Histoire de la République des Lettres en France depuis MDCCLXII jusqu’à nos Jours; ou Journal d’un Observateur, Contenant les Analyses des Pieces de Théâtre qui ont paru durant cet intervalle; les Relations des Assemblées Littéraires; les notices des Livres nouveaux, clandestins, prohibés; les Pieces fugitives, rares ou manuscrites, en prose ou en vers; les Vaudevilles sur la Cour; les Anecdotes et Bons Mots; les Eloges des Savants, des Artistes, des Homme de Lettres morts, etc. etc. etc. (London: John Adamson, 1786), 30:161.

André Louis Woldemar Alphée de Sinety, “Notice sur la duchesse de Caderousse Gramont,” [ca. 1832–1868], folio 121–22, private collection.

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Souvenirs de Madame Louise-Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, de l’Académie Royale de Paris, de Rouen, de Saint-Luc de Rome et d’Arcadie, de Parme et de Bologne, de Saint-Pétersbourg, de Berlin, de Genève et Avignon (Paris: H[enri] Fournier, 1835), 1:53, 332, as La comtesse de Grammont-Cadrousse [sic].

Deux célébrités féminines aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles: Madame de Genlis et Madame Vigée-Le Brun: Souvenirs Personnels recueillis à l’usage de la Jeunesse (Paris: Librairie Saint-Paul, [18?]), 225–26.

“Memoirs of Madame Lebrun,” The Museum of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art 32 (March 1838): 326.

Lélius, Les Maîtres dans les Arts du Dessin (Paris: Amable Rigaud, 1868), 138.

E. Yapp, “A Beautiful Woman of Genius,” Dark Blue 3, no. 6 (August 1872): 659–60.

Camille Selden, “Souvenirs de l’Ancienne Société Française: Une artiste femme du monde, Madame Vigée-Le Brun,” La Revue Politique et Littéraire 10, no. 8 (August 24, 1872): 186.

Jules Guiffrey, Table Générale des Artistes Ayant Exposé aux Salons du XVIII^e Siècle: Suivie d’une Table de la Bibliographie des Salons, Précédée de Notes sur les Anciennes Expositions et d’une Liste Raisonnée des Salons de 1801 à 1873 (Paris: J. Baur, 1873), 42.

Camille Selden [Elise Krinitz], Portraits de Femmes (Paris: G. Charpentier, 1877), 197–98.

Émile Bellier de la Chavignerie and Louis Auvray, Dictionnaire Général des Artistes de l’École Française depuis l’Origine des Arts du Dessin jusqu’à nos Jours (1882; repr., New York: Garland, 1979), 3:947, as Portrait de Mme la comtesse de Grammont [sic]-Caderousse.

Jules Guiffrey, “Table des Portraits Exposés aux Salons du Dix-Huitième Siècle jusqu’en 1800,” Nouvelles Archives de l’Art Français, 3rd ser., vol. 5 (Paris: Charavay Frères, 1889), 19.

Charles Pillet, Madame Vigée-Le Brun (Paris: Librairie de l’Art, 1890), 22.

Sophia Beale, “Elizabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun,” Portfolio 22 (1891): 89–90.

“Ce qui se passe,” Le Gaulois 29, no. 5499 (June 2, 1895): 1.

“Historique de deux tapisseries (comte de Choiseul et duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse),” L’Intermédiaire des Chercheurs et Curieux 32, no. 704 (October 10, 1895): 363.

Isabella Fyvie Mayo, “A Genius and a Beauty,” Argosy 62 (December 1896): 674.

Henri Bouchot, “Une artiste française pendant l’émigration: Madame Vigée-Lebrun,” La Revue de l’Art Ancien et Moderne 3, no. 1 (January 1898): 53–54, 54n1.

Henry Lepauze, “Revue des Revues,” Le Gaulois 32, no. 5924 (January 23, 1898): 5.

Pierre de Nolhac, “Marie-Antoinette et Mme Vigée-Lebrun,” La Revue de l’Art Ancien et Moderne 4, no. 21 (December 1898): 525.

André Girodie, “Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun,” Les Contemporains 10, no. 469 (October 6, 1901): 10.

Roger Portalis, “Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (1749–1803),” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 26, no. 534 (December 1, 1901): 491.

Pierre de Nolhac, “Les Peintres de la Femme: Madame Vigée-Le Brun,” Les Modes, no. 50 (February 1905): 2.

Haldane Macfall, Vigée Le Brun (London: T. C. and E. C. Jack, [ca. 1907–1909?]), 43.

“Mme Tallien et la Mode,” La Revue hebdomadaire 6, no. 23 (June 6, 1908): unpaginated.

Pierre de Nolhac, Madame Vigée-Le Brun: Peintre de la Reine Marie Antoinette, 1755-1842 (Paris: Goupil et Cie, 1908), 54–57, 151, 166, (repro.), as Marie-Gabrielle de Sinéty, Duchesse de Caderousse-Grammont [sic].

G[eorge] C[harles] Williamson, Catalogue of the Collection of Miniatures: The Property of J. Pierpont Morgan (London: Chiswick Press, 1908), 4:21.

Henri Bouchot, La Miniature Française, 1750–1825 (Paris: Émile-Paul, 1910), 194.

Henry Roujon, “Madame Vigée-Lebrun,” La Revue hebdomadaire 12 (December 1912): 436.

Fernand de Brinon, “À la Société des Conférences: Mme Vigée-Lebrun, par M. Henry Roujon,” Journal des Débats Politiques et Littéraires 124, no. 340 (December 7, 1912): 2–3.

Jean Lefranc, “Au Jour le Jour: Mme Vigée-Lebrun devant M. Henry Roujon,” Le Temps 52, no. 18784 (December 7, 1912): 3.

Tout-Paris, “Femmes artistes d’autrefois,” Le Gaulois 48, no. 12904 (February 11, 1913): 1.

Jeanne Gabrié, “Les Chevelures qui Scintillent,” La Femina 14, no. 311 (January 1, 1914): 20.

Louis Hautecœur, Madame Vigée-Lebrun (Paris: Renouard, 1914), 23, 38, 56.

Pierre de Nolhac, Le Trianon de Marie-Antoinette (Paris: Goupil et Cie, 1914), 149–50.

W[illiam] H[enry] Helm, Vigée-Lebrun, 1755–1842: Her Life, Works, and Friendships (London: Hutchinson, [1915]), xvii, 67, 190, as Marie-Gabrielle de Sinéty, Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse.

André Blum, Madame Vigée-Lebrun: Peintre des Grandes Dames du XVIIIe Siècle (Paris: L’Édition d’Art, 1919), 37–38, 97.

Gaston Deschamps, “Les Portraits de M. de Calonne,” La Revue de Paris 2 (March 15, 1926): 384.

Edmond Pilon, “Une vraie figure d’Alsace: La baronne d’Oberkirch,” Le Lisez-Moi Historique, no. 63 (October 5, 1936): 527.

Joseph Baillio, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 1755–1842 (Fort Worth: Kimbell Art Museum, 1982), 13, 18, 54–56, (repro.), as The Comtesse de Grammont [sic]-Caderousse.

Advertisement, La Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 93, no. 37 (October 26, 1984): 3, as Portrait de la Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse en vendangeuse.

Advertisement, Burlington Magazine 126, no. 980 (November 1984), xxi, (repro.), as Portrait de la Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse.

Advertisement, La Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 93, no. 39 (November 9, 1984): 24, (repro.), as La Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse en vendangeuse.

Advertisement, La Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 93, no. 40 (November 16, 1984): 24.

“Les Ventes Prochaines,” La Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 93, no. 41 (November 23, 1984): 8.

Geraldine Norman, “Sale Room: French Auction Record for Duchesse Portrait,” Times (London), no. 62,000 (November 30, 1984): 2.

Souren Melikian, “At Drouot, Eclectic Auction Works to the Buyer’s Advantage,” International Herald Tribune, no. 31,659 (December 1–2, 1984): 7, (repro.).

“Peinture: un bouquet d’enchères millionnaires,” La Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 93, no. 43 (December 7, 1984): 2, (repro.).

“Résultats des Ventes,” La Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 93, no. 45 (December 21, 1984): 7, as La Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse en vendangeuse.

Hugo Tijmen Douwes Dekker, Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun, 1755–1842: Portraits à l’huile. Essai de catalogue ([The Hague: 1984]), 3–4, 20, 75, as Marie-Gabrielle Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse-née de Sinéty.

Importants Tableaux Anciens et Modernes (Paris: Nouveau Drouot, 1984), unpaginated, (repro.), as La Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse en vendangeuse.

F[rançois] D[uret]-R[obert], “Deux Longueurs d’Avance pour Madame Vigée-Le Brun,” Connaissance des Arts, no. 395 (January 1985): 92, (repro.), as Portrait de la duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse.

Souren Melikian, “French Art Market Steers Own Course,” International Herald Tribune, no. 31,687 (January 5–6, 1985): 6.

Patrick Martin, “Le Prix des Chefs-d’œuvre,” Beaux Arts, no. 21 (February 1985): 10, (repro.), as Portrait de la duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse en vendangeuse.

Florence Michel, “Old Master Pictures,” Art and Auction 7, no. 7 (February 1985): 89.

Sylviane Humair, “Record per la duchessa,” Antiquariato, no. 58 (March 1985): 18–19, (repro.), as Ritratto della duchessa di Gramont-Caderousse.

John Russell, “A Rare Opportunity to See Giacomettis by the Dozen,” New York Times 135, no. 46,545 (September 27, 1985): C21.

François Duret-Robert, “Bilan d’une Saison,” Connaissance des Arts, no. 404 (October 1985): 65, 71, (repro.), as Portrait de la duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse en vendangeuse.

Souren Melikian, “Drouot Draws on France’s Mine of Art,” International Herald Tribune, no. 31,938 (October 26–27, 1985): 7.

E[nrique] Mayer, International Auction Records, vol. 19, 1985 (Paris: Éditions Mayer, 1985), 1402, (repro.), as La Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse en vendangeuse.

Henry Sorensen, ed., Drouot 1984–1985: l’art et les enchères (Paris: S. E. P. S. V. E. P., 1985), 5, 27, 292, (repro.), as La duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse en vendangeuse.

Walter Spiegl, ed., Kunstpreis-Jahrbuch, vol. 40, 1985, pt. 1 (Munich: Weltkunst Verlag, 1985), 423, (repro.), as La Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse en vendangeuse.

F[rançois] D[uret]-R[obert], “Gros Livres, Gros Prix,” Connaissance des Arts, no. 408 (February 1986): 16, (repro.), as Portrait de la duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse.

John Russell, “Art: Woodblock Prints from Japan at the Met,” New York Times 135, no. 46,790 (May 30, 1986): C24.

Hugo [Tijmen] Douwes Dekker, “Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun at the Biennial Salons du Louvre, 1783–1789,” Tableau 8, no. 6 (Summer 1986): 48, as Marie-Gabrielle duchesse de Grammont [sic]-Caderousse.

“Museum and Departmental Announcements,” Midwest Art History Society Newsletter, no. 13B (Fall 1986): 9, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

P. J., “Guy Stair-Sainty,” Connaissance des Arts, no. 415 (September 1986): 68.

“Education Insights,” Calendar of Events (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (November 1986): 6, as Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Donald Hoffmann, “A New Old Master at the Nelson: Portrait Artist Made her Mark in French Court,” Kansas City Star 107, no. 51 (November 16, 1986): 1D, 10D, (repro.).

“A. M.,” Kansas City Times 119, no. 66 (November 24, 1986): C-9, as Portrait of the Duchesse de Caderousse.

“New at the Nelson: Eighteenth-Century French Masterpiece Acquired by Museum,” Calendar of Events (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (December 1986): 1–3, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Susan Porter, “Magazine gives credence to women’s art and literature,” Kansas City Star 107, no. 77 (December 17, 1986): 30.

An Aspect of Collecting Taste, exh. cat. (New York: Stair Sainty Matthiesen, 1986), 7, 44–47, (repro.), as The Duchess of Caderousse en Vendangeuse.

“Artnews,” Art Gallery International 8, no. 2 (January–February 1987): 8, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchess de Caderousse.

Paul Jeromack, “Believing in the 18th Century: French Old Master Paintings, Now and Then,” Art and Auction 9, no. 7 (February 1987): 72–73, 77, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

April McClellan, “‘Blockbuster’ exhibit, new art draw more people to the Nelson,” Kansas City Times 119, no. 129 (February 5, 1987): B-2, as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Calendar of Events (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (October 1987): 5, (repro.).

Donald Hoffmann, “Dressed for Success,” Kansas City Star 108, no. 26 (October 18, 1987): 5D, as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont.

Laura Rollins Hockaday, “Art Alive to salute museum,” Kansas City Star 108, no. 52 (November 17, 1897): 4C.

John Russell, “Dazzling Records are Set in Salesrooms, but the Real Life of Art Goes on Quietly Elsewhere,” New York Times 137, no. 47,331 (November 22, 1987): H39.

“Members in Action,” Calendar of Events (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (December 1987): 7, (repro.).

Jackie White, “Art comes to life at gallery,” Kansas City Star 108, no. 73 (December 13, 1987): 3E.

Roger [Barry] Ward, ed., A Bountiful Decade: Selected Acquisitions 1977–1987, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1987), 152–53, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

“Members in Action,” Calendar of Events (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (February 1988): 7, as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

“A Fall Harvest,” Calendar of Events (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (September 1988): unpaginated insert, (repro.), Spencer Art Reference Library, Kansas City.

Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 71, 74–75, as Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchess of Caderousse.

M[arie] Therese Southgate, “The Cover,” JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 262, no. 3 (July 21, 1989): 322, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Old Master Paintings (New York: Sotheby’s, April 7, 1989), unpaginated.

Anne-Marie Passez, Antoine Vestier, 1740–1824 (Paris: Fondation Wildenstein, 1989), 81, 152, (repro.), as Portrait de la comtesse de Grammont [sic]-Caderousse en vendangeuse.

Élisabeth Vigée LeBrun, Memorie de una Ritrattista, trans. Giovanna Parodi (Milan: Mursia, 1990), 11, 22n36, 41.

David G. Wilkins et al., Art Past, Art Present, 2nd ed. (1990; repr., New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994), 391, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Roger [Barry] Ward, “Selected Acquisitions of European and American Paintings at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, 1986–1990,” Burlington Magazine 133, no. 1055 (February 1991): 154, 156, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Susan Waller, Women Artists in the Modern Era: A Documentary History (1991; repr., Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002), 16.

Manfred Koch-Hillebrecht, Museen in den USA: Gemälde (Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 1992), 243–44, as Marie Gabrielle de Gramont.

Alice Thorson, “The Nelson celebrates its 60th; Museum built its reputation, collection virtually ‘from scratch’,” Kansas City Star (July 18, 1993): J1.

Michael Churchman and Scott Erbes, High Ideals and Aspirations: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1933–1993 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 108, 117n6, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

John Kissick, Art: Context and Criticism ([Madison, WI]: Brown and Benchmark, 1993), 437–38, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Wendy Slatkin, The Voices of Women Artists (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993), 33.

Roger [Barry] Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1993), 130, 196, 409, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Roland Bonnel and Catherine Rubinger, eds., Femme savants et femmes d’esprit: Women Intellectuals of the French Eighteenth Century (New York: Peter Lang, 1994), 414.

Jed Jackson, Art: A Comparative Study (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt, 1994), 161, 274, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchess of Caderousse.

Inès de Kertanguy, Madame Vigée-Le Brun (Paris: Perrin, 1994), 105–06.

Patricia J. Fidler, “New at the Nelson: Painting by Noted 18th-Century Artist Acquired,” Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (June 1995): 2, as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Aileen Ribeiro, The Art of Dress: Fashion in England and France, 1750–1820 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), 165, 167, (repro.), as Marie de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Catherine R. Montfort, “Vigée Le Brun: Une Artiste Exemplaire (1755–1842),” Nottingham French Studies 35, no. 2 (Autumn 1996): 48.

“Education Insights,” Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (March 1997): 4, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Stephanie Hauschild, “Schatten, Farben, Licht: Die Portäts von Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun” (Ph.D. diss., Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, 1998), 12, (repro.), as Comtesse de Grammont [sic]-Caderousse.

Servanne Woodward, “Les ‘Souvenirs’ de Vigée-Lebrun,” in “Écriture de soi au féminin,” Dalhousie French Studies 47 (Summer 1999): 78.

Delia Gaze, ed., Concise Dictionary of Women Artists (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001), 683, as Duchesse de Gramont as a Grape Gatherer.

Françoise Pitt-Rivers, Madame Vigée Le Brun ([Paris]: Éditions Gallimard, 2001), 76, 91.

M[arie] Therese Southgate, The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from the Journal of the American Medical Association (Chicago: American Medical Association, 2001), 92, 211, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

“Women and Art,” Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (January–February 2004): 5, (repro.), Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchess de Caderousse.

Pierre Sanchez, Dictionnaire des Artistes Exposant dans les Salons des XVII et XVIIIème Siècles à Paris et en Province, 1673–1800 (Dijon: Éditions de l’Échelle de Jacob, 2004), 3:1711.

“Vibrant Galleries Offer Fresh View of European Art,” Member Magazine (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Fall 2006): 6–7, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

[Emmanuel] Bénézit, Dictionary of Artists (Paris: Éditions Gründ, 2006), 14:299–300, as Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse as a Grape-Gatherer.

Olivier Blanc, Portraits de femmes: artistes et modèles à l’époque de Marie-Antoinette (Paris: Éditions Didier Carpentier, 2006), 18–19, (repro.), as La comtesse de Gramont-Caderousse, née Marie-Gabrielle de Sinéty, en habit de vendangeuse.

Alice Thorson, “What’s Your Position on Nelson’s Venus?,” Kansas City Star 127, no. 231 (May 6, 2007): H7, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchess of Caderousse.

Alice Thorson, “Expansion Gives Original Building Breathing Room: Reinstallation of European Collection and New Gallery Spaces Among Improvements,” Kansas City Star 127, no. 259 (June 3, 2007): E6.

Nicole Garnier-Pelle et al., Portraits des maisons royales et impériales de France et d’Europe: Les miniatures du musée Condé à Chantilly (Paris: Somogy éditions d’art, 2007), 33, 234.

Nathalie Lemoine-Bouchard, Les Peintres en Miniature: actifs en France 1650–1850 (Paris: Les Éditions de l’Amateur, 2008), 60.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), xvi, 34, 106, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Elisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun, Souvenirs, 1755–1842, ed. Geneviève Haroche-Bouzinac (Paris: Éditions Champion, 2008), 12, 160, 160n80, 161, 161n80, 338, as Marie-Gabrielle de Grammont [sic], née de Sinéty, duchesse de Caderousse.

Marianne Berardi and Henry Adams, Discovering Margot Peet: The Artist and the Art World of Kansas City (Chevy Chase, MD: Posterity Press, 2010), 146, 148–50, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Bernd Pappe, Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin: Peintre en miniature (Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France: Musée Pierre-Noël, 2010), 38.

Geneviève Haroche-Bouzinac, Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun: Histoire d’un regard ([Paris]: Flammarion, 2011), 137, 559n15, as Marie-Gabrielle de Grammont [sic], née de Sinéty, duchesse de Caderousse.

Marie-Josèphe Bonnet, Liberté, Égalité, Exclusion: Femmes Peintres en Révolution, 1770–1804 (Paris: Vendémiaire, 2012), 49.

Kendra Van Cleave, 18th Century Hair and Wig Styling: History and Step-by-Step Techniques (U.S.: published by author, 2014), 8, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

Joseph Baillio and Xavier Salmon, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, exh. cat. (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2015), 29, 31, (repro.), as La comtesse de Gramont Caderousse en vendangeuse.

Cécile Berly, Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun: Peindre et écrire; Marie-Antoinette et son temps (Paris: Éditions Artlys, 2015), 182–83, (repro.), as Portrait de Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, duchesse de Caderousse.

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), 186, 188–89, (repro.), as Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, duchesse de Caderousse.

Joseph Baillio et al., Vigée Le Brun, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016), 113–15, 241, 246–47, (repro.), as The Comtesse de Gramont Caderousse Gathering Grapes.

Bernadette Fort, “Les ‘Souvenirs’ d’Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun: Distinction et sociabilité dans un ‘Vie’ d’artiste,” in Artistes, savants et amateurs: art et sociabilité au XVIIIe siècle (1715–1815): actes du colloque international, organisé du 23 au 25 juin 2011 à l’INHA, Paris ed. Jessica L. Fripp et al. ([Paris]: Mare et Martin, 2016), 253.

Liz Rideal and Kathleen Soriano, Madam and Eve: Women Portraying Women (London: Laurence King, 2018), 16–18, (repro.), as Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse.

The Pohl-Ströher Collection of Portrait Miniatures Part II (London: Sotheby’s, July 4, 2019), 60, as Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Sinéty, Duchesse de Gramont-Caderousse.