Two paintings by Jacques Dumont le Romain for Versailles

10/11/23 - Acquisitions - Versailles, Musée national du château - If there will probably never be an exhibition devoted to Marie-Josèphe de Saxe (1731-1767), it’s not just because she never ascended the throne: the mother of the last three kings of France was already unequivocally described as a "woman under influence" in Xavier Salmon’s essay on her in 2006 [1]. Although Versailles celebrated Madame de Pompadour in 2002 and Marie Leszczyńska almost twenty years later (see article), the second Dauphine has hardly been studied, despite the existence of a research paper - which has remained unpublished - written by Rémi Chiappone under the supervision of Raphaël Masson and Bertrand Rondot at the École du Louvre [2].

1. Jacques Dumont called Dumont le Romain (1701-1781)
Sleep Surrounded by Pleasant Dreams
Oil on canvas - 76 x 1743 cm
Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon
Photo: Artcento

See the image in its page

2. Jacques Dumont called Dumont le Romain (1701-1781)
Dawn Accompanied by Small Zephyrs
Oil on canvas - 76 x 143 cm
Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon
Photo: Artcento

See the image in its page

Will things change with the arrival of these two fine overdoors (ill. 1 and 2) painted by Jacques Dumont dit Dumont le Romain? They recently appeared on the market at a sale organised by Primardeco in Toulouse on 20 October, and were of course preempted by the Château de Versailles for €27,000 hammer price, or €34,020 including costs, a rather reasonable sum given their quality and history. Although it is well known that the young princess was hardly able to impose her artistic choices in her flats, even though they were of course furnished with Saxony and Sèvres porcelain, the experts at Cabinet Turquin were able to trace the origins of these two paintings, since their iconography corresponds perfectly to the descriptions in the archives of the time. Le Normant…