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A mythological portrait by Jean Nocret for Versailles
10/7/23 - Acquisition - Versailles, Musée national du château - The painting was due to be auctioned by Koller in Zurich on 22 September 2022 but was bought in. It was finally purchased by private treaty earlier this year by the Château de Versailles. It is a work by Jean Nocret, a rare example of a portrait treated as a mythological painting (ill. 1). Although portraits make up the bulk of this artist’s output, and there are occasional historiated portraits, most are treated in the classical manner, with the sitter posing dressed like the person he or she portrays, or sometimes even undressed, as that of Madame de Ludre as Marie-Madeleine at the Château de Versailles.