King Charles IX of France (1550-1574)
after François Clouet (Tours c.1516 - Paris 1572)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1800 - 1899
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
324 x 178 mm (12 3/4 x 7 in)
Place of origin
France
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 515446
Caption
This portrait forms a pair with that of Henri II, also at Anglesey Abbey. They are reductions after originals by Clouet in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. They show the type of portrait favoured by the European courts in the first half of the 16th century, where figures are shown full-length with one leg bearing the weight of the body, often with one hand on the hip, or resting on a piece of furniture, and the other hanging at the side, holding gloves or a sword hilt. The artist who started this trend was Jakob Seisenegger (1505-1567) with his portrait of Charles V. Within a few years both Titian and Clouet had imitated it, and the style was also taken up in England after William Scrots had popularized it. Clouet’s portraits, which are extremely delicate and distinguished, are admirable examples of court painting in France in the sixteenth century.
Summary
Oil painting on panel, King Charles IX of France (1550-1574) after François Clouet (Tours c.1516 – Paris 1572), 19th century. A full-length portrait of a young man, standing in an interior, looking at the spectator, head turned slightly to the left, pale wispy moustache and beard. His right hands holds his gloves and his right arm rests on a red upholstered chair on the left, his left hand holds his sword hilt He wears a black doublet with gold brocadedbands, a black jewelled cap with a grey plume, cloak and the Order of St Michael, of which, as sovereign, he was the 7th head. Green drapes in background on left and right. This portrait of Charles IX forms a pair with that of Henri II, NT 515445, and are reductions after originals by Francois Clouet in the Louvre. They show the type of portrait favoured by the European courts in the first half of the 16th century, where figures are shown full-length with one leg bearing the weight of the body, often with one hand on the hip or resting on a piece of furniture and the other hanging at the side holding gloves or a sword hilt. The background often shows richly decorative interiors. The artist who started this trend was Seisenegger with his portrait of Charles V. Within a few years both Titian and Clouet had imitated it and the style was also taken up in England after William Scrots had popularised it.
Provenance
Collection of Charles Sauvageot (1781-1860), of the Ecole Royale de Musique..(see Louvre’s Dictionnaire des Donateurs.) His collections went to Louvre by gift in 1856, 4 years before his death, but there was a posthumous sale on 3 May 1860, which included paintings, lot 47 - Janet, dit Clouet - Henri II et Charles IX. Auguste, peintre 1850; Rattier, 1859; Hamilton Palace Sale, miniatures, 13th day, 15th July 1882, lot 1651 - portraits of Henri II, Henri III, Charles IX, Catherine de Medicis, le Grand Dauphin, Claude de France - six small whole-lengths by Janet, in tortoiseshell frames, bought by W. King; Sale Charpentier, Paris 21 Dec 1955, lot 20. Captain Bertram Currie (1899-1959), Dingley Hall. Date of acquisition by Lord Fairhaven is unknown; bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: Inscribed gilt tabled affixed to bottom of frame1550 King Charles IX of France 1574. c. 1516 F. Janet c. 1593. From the W. Bentinck L. Hawkins collection, from the Hamilton Palace collection.
Makers and roles
after François Clouet (Tours c.1516 - Paris 1572), artist
References
Dictionnaire des Donateurs du Louvre, p.317. [Part I] Dictionnaire des Donateurs du Louvre, p.317 [Part II conclusion] Dimier 1904: L. Dimier, French Painting in the Sixteenth Century, London, 1904, p.198: Dimier, 1924-6: L. Dimier, Histoire de la Portrait en France au XVIe siècle, 1924-6, vol. I, p. 91: Auerbach 1949 Erna Auerbach, ‘Notes on some Northern Mannerist Portraits’, Burlington Magazine, XCI, Aug 1949, p.221: