Chez Geoffrin - two paintings and two drawings of madame Geoffrin at home, by Hubert Robert, 1771

 

Madame Geoffrin (Marie Thérèse Geoffrin, née Rodet; 26 June 1699, Paris - 6 October 1777, Paris) was the host of a celebrated Salon - her bureaux d’esprit, as she called them - and is remembered as one of the leading female figures in the French Enlightenment. From 1750 to 1777, in her townhouse at what is now 374 rue Saint-Honoré, Madame Geoffrin received many of the most influential Philosophes and Encyclopédistes and the finest artists of her time. 

Un Artiste présente un portrait à Madame Geoffrin.

The reception was simple and unpretentious, but it was precisely this simplicity that allowed lively conversation to flourish, and which made it such a draw for the salon's habitués and those who clambered to be as such. Her dinners were held twice weekly. At first her invitations were extended to scholars who would gather every Wednesday. But later she welcomed artists on Mondays, which was seen as a novelty in the milieu of the Salon.

Le Déjeuner de Madame Geoffrin.

In 1771, Madame Geoffrin commissioned Hubert Robert to paint these two pictures depicting her in her home. The artist portrays a version of the salonnière faithful to the image preserved by posterity. She is simply dressed in a gray-blue gown and hair cap. In one scene, Madame Geoffrin listens to a reading by her servant; in the other, she examines a painting being presented to her. 

Her home was adorned with the work of artists who frequented her Mondays, and visitors to her home often placed commissions with those artists - the likes of Van Loo, Greuze, Vernet, Vien, and others - whose works were displayed on her walls. There has been much debate as to whether the man standing at the easel in the second painting is the artist himself, perhaps including himself as some attempt to demonstrate a familiarity with such an influential figure. But this is mere conjecture. At any rate, these two paintings would be the last commissions Madame Geoffrin placed with any artist.

It should be noted that Robert indulged in some artistic license when depicting these interiors, including artworks that do not appear in Madame Geoffrin’s inventories, editing out others that did, while other works appear likely to be pure invention.

Drawing Lawrence - portraits of T. E. Lawrence, 1918-1934

 

Eric Kennington, 1921.

Augustus John, 1923.

Colin Unwin Gill, 1922.

Augustus John, 1919.

William Rothenstein, 1920.

Frederick Carter, 1934.

Augustus John, 1919.

Augustus John, 1919.

James McBey, 1918.

Augustus John, 1929.

Playing dress up - "Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball" by William Etty, 1835

 

Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball, also known as The Misses Williams-Wynn, is a portrait of Charlotte and Mary Williams-Wynn, commissioned in 1833 by their father, the Welsh Conservative politician Charles Watkin Williams-Wynn. Generally well received when first exhibited at the 1835 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, it proved successful in gaining the William Etty - until then known almost exclusively for history paintings and for historical and mythologically-themed subjects, most frequently containing nude figures - further portrait commissions.

Charlotte (16 January 1807 - 26 April 1869), shown standing, never married and is remembered as a letter-writer and diarist. Mary (2 March 1808 [?] - 21 April 1869) had married Member of Parliament James Milnes Gaskell in 1832 - so she was no longer a "Miss Williams-Wynn", as the alternative title asserts - and the couple would have four children; the Vogue editor Anna Wintour is one of their descendants. The sisters died within five days of each other in 1869, and the painting was inherited by Mary's family. 

After its initial appearance at the Royal Academy in 1835 and a retrospective exhibition of Etty's work in 1849, the painting was not shown publicly for one-hundred and sixty years. In 1982, a private collector purchased the piece from Mary Williams-Wynn's great-granddaughter. It remained in that collection until its 2009 acquisition by the York Art Gallery - York being the place of the artist's birth - where it forms part of a major collection of Etty's work.

To share the beloved's memory - the Lansdowne Antinoüs

 

Antinoüs, from the province of Bithynia on the Black Sea coast was, famously, the companion of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. In October 130 CE the young man drowned in the River Nile under circumstances and for reasons which have never been ascertained. Accident, murder, self-sacrifice? Whatever the cause, Hadrian was grief-stricken and, soon after, he declared that the youth had been reborn as a god. He built a great city, Antinoöpolis, on the eastern bank of the Nile, at the site of the tragedy, and a cult to his dead favorite was established that lasted well into the fourth century CE.

Upwards of a hundred images of this new god survive, while countless more were no doubt created but now lost. In art he was often assimilated with other, more traditional gods. But whether represented as Apollo or Mercury/Hermes, or portrayed wearing Egyptian costume, marking an association with the Egyptian god Osiris, his codified portrait - sensual face; strong, straight brows; pouting lips; thick, tousled hair - make his imagery easily identifiable. He was also frequently depicted as Dionysos/Bacchus. It is as this deity, his luxuriant hair circled with the god's familiar wreath of ivy or grapevine leaves, that he appears in the Fitzwilliam bust.

This bust was unearthed in 1769 at the site of Hadrian’s great villa at Tivoli - more than twenty images of Antinoüs have been discovered at Hadrian’s Villa - during excavations undertaken by the art dealer and archaeologist Gavin Hamilton, who secured it for the 2nd Earl of Shelburne, created 1st Marquess of Lansdowne in 1784. The latter was an avid collector of antiquities and kept a fine collection of classical sculpture until most of it was sold and dispersed by his descendants in 1930. It entered the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1937 as a bequest of the artists Charles Shannon and Charles Ricketts.

Unknown sculptor, marble, circa 130 CE - 200 CE. 

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The original photographs taken at the Fitzwilliam Museum are by Carole Raddato, from her Flickr photostream.

The older sister - Archduchess Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen

Marcello Bacciarelli, 1766.

Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen (Maria Christina Johanna Josepha Antonia; 13 May 1742, Vienna - 24 June 1798, Vienna), the fifth child and fourth (but second surviving) daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. Always called Marie or Mimi at the Viennese court and by her family, she was Maria Theresa's favorite child, and their mother's preference for her caused great resentment among her siblings, bad feelings that only increased with time. Highly intelligent and artistically gifted, she was given an excellent education - a fairly rare attention given to a royal princess at the time - and she was fluent in several languages. 

Johan Zoffany, 1776.

In 1760, at the age of eighteen, she developed an intense romantic attachment to her new sister-in-law, Princess Isabella of Parma. That same year, Prince Albert of Saxony had visited Vienna, becoming close friends with both Maria Christina and Isabella. When the latter died, three years later, she was heartbroken. But she and Albert soon fell in love. His relatively weak royal position made their marriage unlikely, but such was Maria Christina's influence over her mother, that they were allowed to marry in 1766. 

Martin van Meytens (copy?), circa 1765. 

The princess received a rich dowry: the Silesian Duchy of Teschen - in addition to being made Field Marshal and Statthalter of Hungary, Albert would now be titled Duke of Saxe-Teschen - the towns of Mannersdorf, Ungarisch Altenburg, and other properties, and the richly renovated castle in Pressburg, where the couple would live; their household included about one-hundred and twenty people. That she was allowed to make a love match and that the new couple was so lavishly provided for, further alienated her brothers and sisters. The following year she had a daughter who only lived one day, and she contracted puerperal fever and was left unable to have further children; the couple later adopted a nephew in order to have an heir. 

Unknown artist, after Roslin, circa 1778.

They established a luxurious court in Pressburg, hosting many festivities, with frequent visits home to Vienna. And they made themselves popular with the Hungarian nobility and citizens, and devoted themselves to their common interest in art, making Pressburg a cultural center during their time there; it was here that they began their acquisition of drawings and engravings, a passion which eventually led to the formation of the famous Albertina Art Collection. 

Austrian School, circa 1766.

In 1780, it had been decided by Maria Theresa that the couple be appointed joint governors of the Austrian Netherlands, but the Empress died in November, during their preparations of the couple's journey. Her successor, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, had a very poor relationship with his sister, jealous like all their siblings had been of her privileged position and intimate relationship with their mother. He confirmed the appointment but refused his sister the financial resources corresponding to the couple's position. They were also unable to play an independent political role, and were therefore reduced to being little more than a symbolic presence. 

Johann Georg Weikert, 1778.

The Austrian Netherlands, however, was a hotbed of social tensions and the Emperor, who lacked a clear understanding of the situation there, imposed drastic reforms, ignoring any calls for caution from the Duke and Duchess of Teschen. Further radical reforms led to violent riots. The couple tried to resist the Emperor's reckless and inflammatory decrees, but were constantly overruled. Then during the summer of 1789, inspired by the beginning of the French Revolution, outright rebellion arose in the Austrian Netherlands, and in November the couple was forced to flee Brussels. 

Daniel Schmiddely (?), circa 1766.

Two months later the Austrian Netherlands declared itself independent as the United Belgian States, and a month after that, Emperor Joseph II died and was succeeded by his younger brother Leopold II, with whom Maria Christina had a better relationship. In the meantime, continuing political conflict put the new Belgian republic on the edge of civil war. And in December 1790, the Austrians reconquered Brussels without a fight, and six months later the Duke and Duchess of Teschen returned to Brussels, reassuming their roles as joint governors. 

Alexandre Roslin, 1778.

However, in October 1792, the Austrian Netherlands was invaded by Revolutionary France, the French decisively defeating the Austrian troops. As a result, the couple was once again forced to flee. They eventually settled in Vienna, where the Duke lavished much attention on their art collection; they had been able to evacuate the collection from Brussles by sea, though one of the three ships on which the works were transported was destroyed in a storm. 

Maria Christina, who appears to have been struggling with depression at this point, began to suffer from a stomach disease in 1797, and she died the following year at the age of fifty-six. After her death of his wife, the Duke commissioned an impressive white marble cenotaph in the Augustinian Church, the work of the famous neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova. At his own death in 1822, he was also buried beside her, together with their daughter. 

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Canova's cenotaph for Maria Christina in the Augustinian Church - part of the Hofburg Palace complex in Vienna - completed in 1805.