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Lot Essay
Louis Claude Le Blanc (1669-1728), nephew of the maréchal de Bézons, was, according to the celebrated court memoirist Saint-Simon, "very intelligent, capable, enterprising, very charming, also a hard worker and a man who knew the world and who had always known how to please those who had business with him." Le Blanc had had a successful career in the provinces, rising to the post of intendant of Ypres, in charge of army logistics in 1708. There he had played a large part in the French victory at Denain. In 1714 he had promoted the idea of building a port at Mardyck (near Dunkirk) when Dunkirk's fortifications had been dismantled under the provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht. After his friend and admirer, Philippe, duc d'Orléans, was named Regent during the minority of Louis XV, he appointed Le Blanc Secretary of State for War. Le Blanc assumed the post on 24 September 1718 and held it until his dismissal in July 1723, less than six months after the King assumed his full authority. Following his fall from grace, Le Blanc went into exile at his country estate. He died in 1728 in Versailles.
De Troy's portrait of Le Blanc--one of the greatest of the artist's career--is dated 1717, while the sitter's star was still ascendant, just one year before Le Blanc was named secretary of war, a post which would mark both the pinnacle and the end of his career. De Troy renders him as Saint-Simon so memorably characterized Le Blanc: intelligent, capable, worldly, and with a pleasing touch of wry humor. For such a sitter, De Troy was the perfect portraitist among the many master practitioners of the genre in Régence France: more direct and realistic than Largillierre and Rigaud, but also less severe, grandiose or formal, De Troy had a gift for conveying intelligence without solemnity.
One is tempted to read much into the exotic costume of Le Blanc's attentive servant, who pours a cup of bitter morning chocolate into a fashionable Chinese porcelain cup held by the sitter on a silver saucer. (Le Blanc is preparing to sweeten the drink with a cube of sugar). However, the boy's tufted toque with a feather and matching velvet cloak trimmed in fur were studio props that the artist employed in other portraits, notably the famous Duchesse de La Force of 1714 in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen.
De Troy's portrait of Le Blanc--one of the greatest of the artist's career--is dated 1717, while the sitter's star was still ascendant, just one year before Le Blanc was named secretary of war, a post which would mark both the pinnacle and the end of his career. De Troy renders him as Saint-Simon so memorably characterized Le Blanc: intelligent, capable, worldly, and with a pleasing touch of wry humor. For such a sitter, De Troy was the perfect portraitist among the many master practitioners of the genre in Régence France: more direct and realistic than Largillierre and Rigaud, but also less severe, grandiose or formal, De Troy had a gift for conveying intelligence without solemnity.
One is tempted to read much into the exotic costume of Le Blanc's attentive servant, who pours a cup of bitter morning chocolate into a fashionable Chinese porcelain cup held by the sitter on a silver saucer. (Le Blanc is preparing to sweeten the drink with a cube of sugar). However, the boy's tufted toque with a feather and matching velvet cloak trimmed in fur were studio props that the artist employed in other portraits, notably the famous Duchesse de La Force of 1714 in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen.