Jean-Laurent Mosnier,
French 1742-1808-

Portrait of a lady seated...

Jean-Laurent Mosnier,
French 1742-1808-

Portrait of a lady seated three-quarter length wearing a blue dress and white lace apron;

oil on canvas, signed and dated 1792, 115.2x89.9 cm

Provenance: Christie's, London, 31st July 1947, lot 138, for £6-6s to Steiner; Sotheby's 11th July 1990, lot 61; Sotheby's, London, 2nd May 2018, lot 165

Exhibited: Probably the Royal Academy, London, 1792, no.516 (as Mrs. T. Drummond).

Literature: Probably A. Graves, 'The Royal Academy of Arts. A complete dictionary of contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904', London 1906, vol. V, p. 312 (as Mrs T. Drummond).

Note: The sitter of the present work is Mrs. Charlotte Drummond, daughter of Lord William Beauclerk, the second son of Charles, 1st Duke of St. Albans, who was the illegitimate son of Charles II and Nell Gywnne. Charlotte married John Drummond, MP for Thetford from 1768-1774, who succeeded his father, Andrew, as head of Drummond's Bank. She was the mother of three children and died in 1793.

Mosnier initially trained as a miniaturist at the Académie de St Luc, Paris before achieving greater renown for his larger portraits. In 1776, he was made Peintre de la Reine to Marie-Antoinette, and was appointed agréé by the Académie Royale in 1786, attaining the rank of reçu as a fully-fledged member in 1788. In 1790, Mosnier fled to London following the outbreak of the French Revolution, where he exhibited at the Royal Academy till 1796. Already acclaimed for his detailed and polished compositions, he noticeably adapted his style to meet English tastes. Mosnier would go on to spend four years in Hamburg, Germany, and a further eight in St. Petersburg, Russia, painting well into the 1800s.