ABSTRACT

The portraits produced of The Princesse de Lamballe represent the final apogee of eighteenth-century French court portraiture, running the breadth of late rococo to high neoclassicism. The artists selected by Lamballe, particularly the small group of professional women artists, were fashionable choices and demonstrated to her audience a visual alignment with the taste of her mistress and friend, Marie-Antoinette. The opportunity to portray a senior courtier and princess of the blood with close personal ties to the royal family was a highly coveted honour for the artists Lamballe chose. Lamballe's friendship with the queen was undoubtedly further tested by the fact that the princess was effectively straddling two rival court factions. To become a favourite at the most glittering court in all of Europe was to bask in the light of a brilliant if capricious sun. The portraits of Lamballe produced during her period of favour represent the final flowering of ancient regime court portraiture.