Publish by Gazette Drouot International

Size, quality of execution and, of course, the model's celebrity status are just some of the highlights of this portrait by Karl Anton Hickel (1745-1798).

With her gaze focused beyond the viewer, did Marie-Thérèse de Savoie Carignan suspect in 1788 that she would suffer a tragic fate during the revolutionary turmoil? A friend of the dauphine, who became Queen of France, who was appointed the superintendent of her household, Marie-Thérèse was replaced by the Duchesse de Polignac as the favorite among the queen's entourage. Remaining devoted to Marie-Antoinette, she was incarcerated in the La Force prison before her execution during the massacres of September 1792 of the French Revolution. This portrait is known through an engraving and another, smaller version (66 x 44 cm/25.9 x 17.3 in) painted in the same year. The latter belongs to the Princely Family of Liechtenstein and is kept in the palace of the same name in Vienna. Karl Anton Hickel's depiction of the aristocrat at her desk, pen in hand, is extremely delicate, from the rendering of the fabrics, the crystal vase from which a few flowers emerge, the furniture and the palette of brown and cream tones. Born in Ceska Lipa (now the Czech Republic) and trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Hickel became an itinerant portraitist in 1779. He spent much of his time in Munich, traveling through Southern Germany and Switzerland, and staying in Mannheim and Mainz, before becoming the official court painter to Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. Between 1786 and 1789, Hickel worked in Paris, where he enjoyed the protection of Marie-Antoinette and Marie-Louise-Thérèse de Savoie, Princess de Lamballe. Leaving France at the start of the Revolution, the painter settled in London, where he pursued a brilliant career as a portrait painter.


Karl Anton Hickel (1745-1798)
Portrait of Marie-Thérèse de Savoie Carignan, Princess de Lamballe, 1788
Oil on canvas, 192 x 128 cm / 75.5 x 50.39 in.
Estimate : €30,000/50,000

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Friday 29 March 2024 - 14:00