Follower of Nicolas de Largillière (early 18th century)
Portrait of Élisabeth Charlotte of Lorraine (image)
Portrait of Gabrielle Charlotte of Lorraine

oil on canvas,1704
The Queen’s Bath Chamber

The two children portrayed here are daughters of Leopold I, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, who had fourteen children, many of whom died young during a smallpox epidemic. Their sister Elisabeth Theresa married Charles Emanuel III of Sardinia, which accounts for the presence of these two canvases in the Savoy collections, from which they arrived in the Genoese palace during the 19th century. In accordance with the dictates of early 18th-century French fashion, the children, shown half-length, wear the high headdress of lace and ribbons known as a fontange over their curls. The roundness of the faces framed by the light but elaborate architecture of the fontange is indicative of the youthfulness of the subjects portrayed. The artist shows them frontally and uses almost impalpable liquid brushwork to capture the rosy cheeks, small fleshy mouths and large expressive eyes.