Portrait of Marie Antoinette’s Canine Skyrockets at Public sale

A pleasant little canine portrait made a royal displaying at Sotheby’s this morning, the place it offered for $279,400 together with charges — practically 56 instances its excessive estimate of $5,000. Jacques Barthélémy Delamarre’s late 18th-century oil portray is regarded as an outline of Marie Antoinette’s “Pompon,” one of many French queen’s many canine companions. Thriller shrouds the topic of the portrait, however little is thought concerning the artist, too.

Jacques Barthélémy Delamarre was accepted into the Académie de St-Luc in Paris in 1777 and painted within the late 18th and early nineteenth centuries. Apart from these info, Sotheby’s Outdated Masters Specialist Elisabeth Lobkowicz advised Hyperallergic, all that’s identified is that Delamarre’s small physique of labor nearly solely depicts variations of this precise canine and different small pets, together with cats and rabbits.

Delamarre’s different portraits of Pompon present the canine consuming biscuits and lounging on a lush crimson cushion. Lobkowicz stated that though these compositions have traditionally been thought to painting Pompon, this notion has not been confirmed with certainty.

Lobkowicz stated the canine’s breed stays a degree of dialogue as effectively: “Is it a poodle? Is it a King Charles spaniel? Or is it one other toy breed altogether?” What is thought is that “Pompon” sported a ridiculous coiffure, very similar to these famously showcased by Marie Antoinette.

Antoinette’s dwelling in Versailles was crammed with pets together with cats and monkeys. Antoinette owned tiny pups till she was executed in 1793. She even had a gilded velvet and silk canine kennel, now within the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork’s assortment.

See Also

New York’s Trans Intercourse Staff Inform Their Tales

In line with a label on the again of Delamarre’s portray, the final time the work hit the public sale block was in 1986, when Bonhams supplied it with an estimate of $3,000–5,000.