Post-mortem portrait of the Marquise de BANNEVILLE
Fine Arts
Inventory number
2020.7.15.1.FA.PA.C1830.FRAttribution:
Alexandre-Jean DUBOIS DRAHONET (French, Paris 1791-1834 Versailles)Description
Painted portrait representing Marie Armande MORIN de BANNEVILLE (1779-1827) wearing a mourning dress with a coat lined with stoat fur and a hat covered with a lace veil, sitting on a red sofa.On the back of the frame is a label indicating "Remember the one we mourn, testimony of friendship from her inconsolable husband, to Madame la Marquise de Banneville, with prayers. In futur give this portrait to the Etchegoyen family." (Souvenir de celle que nous pleurons, témoignage d'amitié de son inconsolable mari, à Madame la Marquise de Banneville, avec des prières pour le temps à venir de remettre ce portrait à la famille d'Etchegoyen)
Marie Armande MORIN de BANNEVILLE was the wife of Count François MALET du GRAVIER, Lieutenant-Colonel of Infantry and owner of a sugar refinery in the English district in Saint Domingue (Haiti) on the Hispaniola island. From 1720, the French part of the island was the world's leading producer of sugar. In 1788, coffee represented half of world production. Families of settlers married together to strengthen their power. Thus, the counts of GRAVIER, owner of sugar refinery, and the marquis of BANNEVILLE, owner of coffee and cotton plantation, enters into marriage. The MORIN de BANNEVILLE and ETCHEGOYEN families (also owner of coffee plantation) are heirs to Charles François GOURAUD de BELLEVUE.
This post-mortem painting was produced in several copies as demonstrated by an identical oval portrait (canvas 22 x 19cm) former property of the Hôtel de Bourrienne in Paris. This Parisian mansion was the property of Jeanne Geneviève Fortunée LORMIER-LAGRAVE, better known as Madame Fortunée HAMELIN, a friend of Joséphine de BEAUHARNAIS (Creole like her), well know as a clever woman who is one of the "Merveilleuses" (fashionable aristocratic subculture in Paris during the French Directory). Fortunée HAMELIN was born and raised until the age of 12 on the familial plantation of Maribaroux in Saint Domingue (Haiti) on the Hispaniola island, where her family was also wealthy planters sugar cane. Fortunée HAMELIN was therefore in family with Marie Armande MORIN of BANNEVILLE so that the portrait of the latter was hung until 2015 in this house.
Material
Oil on canvasOrigin
circa 1830 FranceDimensions
Length : 24 cmHeight : 30 cm