Anonymous, Marguerite de Valois, after a portrait attributed to Clouet, oil on canvas, 20th century, gift from the Friends of the Château

Exhibition dossier "À faire peur !"

Awkward in execution and somewhat unconvincing in the choice of its colours, this portrait reproduces a high-quality portrait on a wooden panel, attributed to the celebrated portraitist Clouet or his circle. It depicts, in bust-length, Queen Margot (1553–1615), daughter of Henry II and Catherine de’ Medici, first wife of the future Henry IV and Queen of Navarre.

In the smaller original portrait, she wears the same bodice adorned with tulle and pearls and surmounted by a ruff, but in grey shades, without the profusion of garish colours found in the reproduction. However aesthetically unappealing this painting may be, it bears witness to a finely executed portrait whose whereabouts were lost during the German occupation of France. Before the war, the painting belonged to the stock of the well-established Parisian art dealer André Seligmann (1898–1945), who had acquired it in England.

His gallery was targeted by the Germans as early as 1940, and its stock was confiscated. Seligmann fled to America. The history of the panel between 1936 and 1945 remains poorly documented, but the original portrait resurfaced in London in 1970, in an auction. It has not been located since.

The museum painting was acquired before this sale and at the time constituted a rare record of this early portrait of Marguerite de Valois.