Lot 2084 Dα

Carlo van Loo, the painter of this work, belonged to a wide branching family of artists of Dutch origin working in France. His grandfather, Jakob van Loo, was a contemporary and colleague in Amsterdam of Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Bartholomäus van der Helst, among many others. He fled the city in 1660 after fatally wounding a man during an argument at a tavern. He was sentenced to death in absentia and was never able to return to the Netherlands. He settled in Paris, where he was admitted to the Académie de peinture et de sculpture in 1663. Jakob van Loo died there in 1670, three years after the entire family received French citizenship. His sons and grandsons all became popular and successful painters. Carle and his older brother Jean Baptiste particularly stand out. Both became sought-after portraitists at the French court.
According to the old catalogues, the lady in our portrait is purported to be the wife of Marshal Gaston Pierre Charles de Lévis. He married the Princess de Beauvau-Craon, who is presumably the woman depicted here, in the first days of January 1739 following the death of his first wife. Lévis was appointed marshal in the same year. He participated in every battle of the War of the Austrian Succession, including the Bohemia campaign (1742), the siege of Montalban (1744) and the Battle of Lauffeldt (1747).