FRENCH SCHOOL circa 1690, workshop of Pierre MIGNARD Portrait of Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon (1635-1719) Canvas (Old restorations) 148x113.5cm Louis XIV period gilded wood frame with daisies and shells Provenance: - Private collection, Niort until the 1990s; - Private collection, South of France. Morganatic wife of the Sun King, whom she married after the death of Queen Marie-Thérèse, our model played a leading role at court, combining discreet political influence, profound piety and aristocratic refinement. In 1686, she founded the Maison royale de Saint-Louis at Saint-Cyr, dedicated to the education of young girls from the poor nobility, embodying her pious, humanist vision. Our painting is a reworking of the composition painted for this institution in 1694 and now conserved at the Château de Versailles (inv. MV 3637). Here, the benefactress is dressed in a blue velvet coat lined with ermine, a probable allusion to her marriage to Louis XIV in 1683. In her left hand, she holds the book of her patron saint, Françoise Romaine. The gold-lettered passage evokes divine approval. An hourglass on her right symbolizes the speed with which the saint obeyed God. Several replicas are known to exist: in the Musée du Louvre (Paris, INV. 6657) and in the Musée du Domaine Royal de Marly (Louveciennes).