Young Lady with a Love Letter, Presumed Portrait of Charlotte Desmares (Primary Title)
La jeune femme au billet doux or Presumed Portrait of Mademoiselle Christine-Antoinette-Charlotte Desmares (Former Title)
Young Lady with a Love Letter, or Portrait of Charlotte Desmares (Former Title)
Jean-Baptiste Santerre, French, 1651 - 1717 (Artist)
Theater emerged as the preferred form of
entertainment among young aristocrats during
the final period of Louis XIV’s reign. As a result,
entertainers mingled in elite social circles, while
aristocratic culture increasingly imitated the jovial
attitude and farcical romances typical of staged
comedies. By the early 1700s, Santerre’s talent as a
portraitist had made him one of the most acclaimed
artists in Paris. Quite astutely, he recognized the
potential appeal of using theatrical conceits to
rejuvenate his half-length portraits of women with
lighthearted expressions of sentimentality. His figures
de fantaisie (fantasy figures) offered a refreshing
alternative to the stiflingly formal iconography
of the court’s official dynastic portraiture. Charlotte
Desmares (1682–1753), the sitter for this elegant
portrait, was a celebrated actress of the Comédie
Française and onetime mistress of the politically
powerful Philippe II, duke of Orléans, one of Santerre’s
most notable patrons. In the eyes of her contemporaries,
Desmares’s costume à l’Espagnole (Spanish-style dress)
would have immediately suggested her role as the
young heroine of a romantic comedy. Santerre had her
pose holding a sealed love letter, a frequent motif in his
paintings, to suggest an existing narrative behind this
diverting portrait.
The Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III Collection
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