Portrait of Barthélemy-Jean-Claude Pupil

Nicolas de Largillierre

1656-1746
Portrait of Barthélemy-Jean-Claude Pupil
1729
Oil on canvas
54-1/2 x 41-7/8 in.

Largillierre, who enjoyed a long and successful career as a portraitist, was sought out early in the eighteenth century by important new clients from the provinces of France. One of them was B.-Jean-Claude Pupil, who received two judicial appointments in Lyon after his marriage in 1722 to Marguerite de Sève, the subject of the companion portrait.

The artist shows Pupil wearing his wig and legal robes and supporting a book whose gilt title has worn away.

Provenance:

By a series of indirect inheritances to Comte Olivier de la Ferrière, his sale, 1969
Acquired by the Putnam Foundation, 1971

Provenance Notes:

[1] Inscribed on the lining of the canvas on the reverse, evidently copying an inscription on the back of the original canvas, is the following legend: peint par / N. de Largillierre. / .1729 / barthelmis.jean.claude.pupil. / chevalier.premier president. / de.la.cour.des monnoyes. / lieutenant.general.de.la. / senchausse. de Lyon