FRANÇOIS-HUBERT DROUAIS (PARIS 1727-1775) - photo 1
FRANÇOIS-HUBERT DROUAIS (PARIS 1727-1775) - photo 2
FRANÇOIS-HUBERT DROUAIS (PARIS 1727-1775) - photo 3
FRANÇOIS-HUBERT DROUAIS (PARIS 1727-1775) - photo 4
FRANÇOIS-HUBERT DROUAIS (PARIS 1727-1775) - photo 5

FRANÇOIS-HUBERT DROUAIS (PARIS 1727-1775)

Lot 98
11.12.2025 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1514342
Lot 98 | FRANÇOIS-HUBERT DROUAIS (PARIS 1727-1775)
Estimate value
€ 80 000 – 120 000
FRANÇOIS-HUBERT DROUAIS (PARIS 1727-1775)
Fillette aux fleurs ou Mademoiselle Laroque présentant des roses ; Fillette au triangle ou Mademoiselle Betzi jouant du triangle
portent une signature et une date indistincte 'Drouais 17[...]' (en bas, à droite) (chaque)
huile sur toile, circulaire, une paire
D. : 47 cm (18 ½ in.)(2)




Provenance

[Probablement] Commandés par la comtesse Jeanne du Barry née Jeanne Bécu (1743-1793) pour le pavillon neuf du château de Louveciennes avec deux autres dessus-de-portes, et livrés le 1er août 1772 (selon C. Gabillot, 1906, voir infra).
Edgard-Salomon Stern (1854-1937) et Marguerite Stern née Fould (1866-1956), dès au moins 1926 (selon le catalogue d'exposition de 1926, voir infra) ;
Puis par descendance à leur fils, Maurice Stern (1888-1962) et à leur belle-fille, Alice Stern née Goldschmidt (1906-2008) ;
Puis par descendance dans la famille Stern.



Literature

[Probablement] J. Pichon, 'Mémoires de Pajou et de Drouais pour Madame du Barry', in Mélanges de littérature et d'histoire recueillis et publiés par la Société des Bibliophiles français, 1856, I, p. 291.
[Probablement] E. de Goncourt, J. de Goncourt, La du Barry, Paris, 1878, p. 366.
C. Gabillot, Les trois Drouais, Paris, 1906, p. 59 et pp. 88-89 (comme commandés par la comtesse du Barry et erronément signés et datés 1771).
J. Baillio, 'Un portrait de Zamor, page bengalais de Madame du Barry', Gazette des Beaux-Arts. La Chronique des Arts, octobre 2002, 144e année, CXXXX, 1605, 2002, p. 236 et p. 240 (comme commandés par la comtesse du Barry et erronément signés et datés 1771), reproduit en noir et blanc p. 240, figs. 9-10.
J. Baillio, in P. Conisbee (dir.), French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century, Princeton, 2009, p. 145, sous le n°28.
C. B. Bailey, Fragonard's Progress of Love at The Frick Collection, New York-Londres, 2011, p. 167, sous la note 88 (comme commandés par la comtesse du Barry et erronément signés et datés 1771).



Exhibited

Amsterdam, musée de l'État, Exposition d'Art français, 3 juillet-3 octobre 1926, n°45 (Fillette aux fleurs ou Mademoiselle Laroque présentant des roses) et n°46 (Fillette au triangle ou Mademoiselle Betzi jouant du triangle).
Paris, Exposition de quatre portraitistes du XVIIIe siècle. Aved, Danloux, Drouais, Tocqué, 16 janvier-13 février 1930, n°25 (Fillette au triangle ou Mademoiselle Betzi jouant du triangle, comme commandé par la comtesse du Barry et erronément signé et daté 1771) et n°30 (Fillette aux fleurs ou Mademoiselle Laroque présentant des roses, comme commandé par la comtesse du Barry et erronément signé et daté 1771).



Further details

FRANÇOIS-HUBERT DROUAIS (1727-1775), FILLETTE AUX FLEURS OR MADEMOISELLE LAROQUE PRESENTING ROSES; FILLETTE AU TRIANGLE OR MADEMOISELLE BETZI PLAYING THE TRIANGLE, OIL ON CANVAS, CIRCULAR, A PAIR, EACH BEAR A SIGNATURE AND AN INDISTINCT DATE (LOWER RIGHT)

In their well-documented biography devoted to Madame du Barry, born Jeanne Bécu (1743-1793), the Goncourt brothers were the first to highlight this personality so cruelly maligned shortly after the Revolution. She, who had risen to the highest circles of the Kingdom by sheer force of will in an age when birth determined everything, was indeed deserving of the Parisian brothers’ extensive research. Writing in a tone often tinged with bawdiness, they did not shy away from poking fun at this woman who fully understood the power of her charm, yet they also paid tribute to the assurance of her taste. The countess, in fact, promoted the careers of brilliant artists of her generation such as Fragonard (1732-1806) and Drouais (1727-1775), commissioning works from them for her residence at Louveciennes.

In the appendix of their book, the Goncourts reproduced numerous documents, inventories, and correspondences that shed light on the countess’s lifestyle and personality. In the inventory of the Louveciennes château appear four overdoor paintings by Drouais, two of which seem to correspond to the present paintings. The inventory identifies the young girl holding a triangle as a portrait of Betzy (or Betsi), said to be the niece or cousin of the countess, though more likely the secret daughter Jeanne du Barry is believed to have had around the age of seventeen with the magistrate Arnaud de La Porte (1737-1792).
The other young girl holding roses is identified in the same inventory as representing Mademoiselle Laroque, a model whose exact identity remains uncertain today.

Drouais executed a total of nine portraits of children for the château of Louveciennes between 1769 and 1772, three of which depict Betzy. The present paintings appear to be part of the delivery of August 1, which the historian Gabillot (1846-1920) notes were divided between two outstanding collections by 1906: two belonging to Edgard-Salomon Stern (1854–1937) and another pair to the Count Greffulhe (1848-1932) (see C. Gabillot, 1906, supra). Two other overdoors from Louveciennes, part of the August 31 delivery and also depicting Betzy, have recently resurfaced on the Paris art market (see Sotheby’s, Paris, sale of June 26, 2014, lot 59). They had left Louveciennes for Caldwell Hall (Nottinghamshire) and remained there until the 1960s.
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