2007 Catalogue - Colnaghi

22
Louis-Rolland Trinquesse
(Dijon 1745 – 1800 Paris)
Portrait of Charles Grant, Vicomte de Vaux, in Uniform as a Lieutenant Colonel of the Garde du Roi,
attended by his Groom with their Horses, a Fortress beyond
Provenance: Painted for presentation by the sitter to
Sir James Grant of Grant, 8th Bt. (1738-1811), in
1781-2 and by descent at Castle Grant, Aberdeenshire,
and Cullen House, Banffshire, through his sons, Lewis
Alexander, 5th Earl of Seafield and Francis William,
6th Earl of Seafield, to Ian, 13th Earl of Seafield;
Christie's sale on the premises, Cullen House, 23
September 1974, lot 530.
Literature: [Sir] W. Fraser, The Chiefs of Grant,
Edinburgh, 1883, I, p. 536, no. 68, II, pp. 541, 544,
and 546-50.
Charles Grant, Vicomte de Vaux (1749 - circa 1818),
was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Scots Company of the
French Garde du Roi. Despite his French upbringing,
the Vicomte claimed descent from the Scottish Grant
family and this striking portrait is linked with his
successful endeavours to secure recognition of his claim.
The background of the present portrait is detailed in a
series of letters to Sir James Grant, head of the Grant
family in Scotland, from his kinsman, Baron Grant de
Blairfindy, a catholic in the service of King Louis XVI,
who was Colonel of the Légion Royale. On 30 January
1781 Blairfindy wrote to Sir James Grant, enclosing a
'memorial', setting out the Vicomte de Vaux’s descent
from his ancestor Sir John Grant - who had served
under Wallace and had been imprisoned in London in
1297. “His future fortune depends on his being
acknowledg'd [by] you as chief of the family, which
act, authentically documented and sign'd by you and
three or four peers of the realm, will be sufficient in
this country...”. 1 Sir James referred the matter to James
Cummyng at the Lyon Office in Edinburgh, who
recommended on that Sir James Grant “certify in
general terms that the Viscount is an ancient cadet of
[his] family”, and that the document be authenticated
by the “seal and subscription” of the Lord Lyon. On
the basis of this, Blairfindy presented the Vicomte de
Vaux - as M. de Grant, Vicomte de Vaux - to Louis
XVI. The Vicomte, whose first wife had died, wished
to marry the daughter of the President of the States of
Brittany, who would only permit the marriage if his
Oil on canvas
113 7 /8 x 81 1 /4 in. (289.3 x 206.4 cm.)
68
descent was acknowledged by Sir James and the Herald
Office of Scotland.
In order to convince Sir James of the Vicomte de
Vaux’s merits, Blairfindy wrote extolling his virtues and
“as to his figure”, in March 1782, referring for the first
time to the Colnaghi picture, “you are to have his
portrait... It is a very fine piece, ten feet high, etc. and
represents himself, groom and horses as they are in full
life and hight. This he intends you should putt up in
Castle Grant.” 2
In return Sir James offered to send highland dress to
the Vicomte and discussed an exchange of portraits
with Blairfindy who recommended, that if Sir James
sent his portrait, it should be :“En tableau ordinaire”
and not of such a prodigious size as his is of 10 feet
high. Had he consulted me before to get it made I
would have given him the same advice. It is done by
the King's first painter and of the same size as those
the King sends of himself to the foreign courts”. 3
As a result of this reference to “the King's first painter”,
our picture was at one time attributed to Jean-Baptiste-
Marie Pierre but the attribution to Louis-Rolland
Trinquesse proposed by Colin Bailey4 is much more
plausible stylistically. The slightly bibulous nose of the
sitter can be compared with that of the Portrait of
Jacques-Denis Antoine of 1744 (private collection,
France) and there are close parallels between the
physiognomy and the hands of the young man
presenting the boot and the pose of the young gallant
in the Interior Scene with two Women and a Gentleman
of 1776 (recently with Maurice Segoura Gallery, New
York). The closest parallel, though, is with the Portrait
of the Duc de Cossé-Brissac, 5 a similarly flamboyant
portrait where the Duke’s grandeur is emphasised by
the attentions of a courtly young man. While
Trinquesse’s portraits of female sitters are gentle and
straightforward depictions in pastel colours (Young
Girl, 1777, Louvre, Paris), his male portraits, of which
the Colnaghi picture is a superb example, display a
sombre grandeur and flamboyant dynamism.