A few days ago I had a French Guessing Game on my blog. Many of you had hilarious, original, clever guesses. But not a single one of you guessed who the young girl in the painting was.
My friend an antique dealer bought the painting years ago. It is from the 1700s, oil on canvas, with its original frame.
Here are a few of the guesses:
Mind you most of the images I found on GOOGLE.
Madame de Pompadour
A classic guess by many of you, but not at all the one.
Charlotte Corday
Do you know who she is?
I had to look her up too.
"The Angel of Assassination. Charlotte murdered Jacques Louis-David in the bathtub. Later she was beheaded."
But not the portrait of the painting my friend has.
Napoleon as a child.
Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma
Napoleon's second wife.
Napoleon's love letters to Josephine…
(Most of the images I found on Google)
via google rag curl.
Allison of SF guessed it was the inventor of the rag curl.
My cousin Franca Bollo thought it was Mlle. Pince-Gardon, sort of the same thing.
But not.
"I guess this is Bibendum,
the Michelin mascot
before she had a
gender reassignment."
This is George Sand as a child.
"A soul that has never suffered is unable to hide beautiful flowers"
Mona Lisa's sister who was known as a flirt.
Link and painting found here:
http://www.artofm.org/2013_11_01_archive.html
Madame duBarry
The last favorite of Louis LX and was beheaded…
Some of you guessed, Sacha or Yann.
French Nobility before the revolution.
None of these.
Queen Victoria as a child.
A doll baby.
At the sudden death of her father in 1765, Élisabeth's oldest surviving brother, Louis Auguste (later to be Louis XVI of France), became the new Dauphin (the heir-apparent to the French throne). Their mother Marie Josèphe, who never recovered from the loss of her husband, died in March 1767 from tuberculosis.[3] This left Élisabeth an orphan at the age of just two years old, along with her older siblings: Louis Auguste, Louis Stanislas, Count of Provence, Charles Philippe and Clotilde ("Madame Clotilde").
Élisabeth and her sister Clotilde were then raised by Marie Louise de Rohan, comtesse de Marsan and Governess of the Children of France and sister of the Prince of Soubise. She was given a good education. A skillful rider, she was also interested in art; several of her drawings are preserved in the museum of the Château de Versailles. In 1774, her grandfather, Louis XV, died and her elder brother ascended the throne as Louis XVI.
Élisabeth was deeply religious. She was devoted to her brother the king, and refused to marry (as it would have been to a foreign prince) so that she might remain in France; in 1777, a marriage was suggested to Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and brother of her sister-in-law, Queen Marie Antoinette, but she declined with her brother's consent.
Children of Marie Antoinette
Nope the painting is not of any of Marie Antoinette's children.
Marie Adrienne Francoise de Noailles
Do you know her? I did not.
"Is it one of those antique portraits where various costumes are hidden in the frame and the sitter's clothes can be "changed" by placing one of the carefully painted transparent layers over the base portrait? Kind of like an early personalized paper doll.
While looking this up I found this article from the Wall Street Journal:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-facial-details-surface-beneath-a-rembrandt-1441090860
Diogenes asked the image was Ethel Merman
I do not think so…
"Everything is coming up roses …"
This is Chelsea as a little girl 20 some years ago.
It is Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate daughter.
I did not find an image of his daughter….
"Franklin Delano Roosevelt had Lucy Mercer.
Dwight Eisenhower had Kay Summersby.
John F. Kennedy had Judith Exner.
Wayne Hays had Elizabeth Ray.
Gary Hart had Donna Rice.
Benjamin Franklin had Anna-Louise d`Hardancourt Brillon de Jouy. And Madame Helvetius. And Margaret Stevenson. And Polly Hewson. And Madame Foucault. And Countess Diane de Polignac. And Countess Wilhelmina Golowkin. And Catherine Ray. And Georgiana Shipley. And Madame Le Veillard. And Madame Le Roy. And Countess Houdetot. . . .
And, of course, Deborah Read, his wife of 38 years.
Yes, even Ben Franklin-who is ensconced in our national consciousness as a kindly, bespectacled dispenser of aphoristic advice-was a womanizer. Make that especially Ben Franklin."
Totie Fields stand up comic 1965
Yes I looked up all these people and collected their images.
Whew.
Some of you guessed Yann's Mother… I do not have a photo of my mother in law as a child, nor of Yann as a child…
nevertheless, the French Guessing Game Image isn't one of them.
Deborah guessed that the image was of
Louis XVI disguised as a little girl.
I found this cutie image of Louis XVI as a child with a floral sash.
Marilyn thought it was Estee Lauder's great grandmother.
Did you notice the little girl front and center sticking out her tongue?
A painting I found at the brocante.
Oh, you've found my passport photo. (I had to go undercover as I was spying on the activities of a subversive brocante gang going by the name of 'The French Muse'). My report will come out soon.
Isn't that a brilliant response!
"1805 Madame Clicquot, also known as Widow Clicquot. Madame Clicquot’s husband died (by typhoid and/or suicide) when she was only 27, leaving her in control of a company that focused its efforts on banking, wool trading and Champagne. Being the smart lady that she was, Madame Clicquot ch se to move all of the company’s resources into Champagne production.
Under her leadership, the company developed a technique called riddling, which, during the second fermentation of the wine, involved holding the bottle upside down so the yeast could gather near the cork for easier removal later. Prior to this technique, the wines were cloudy with large bubbles and sediment. Madame Cliquot’s riddling technique is a process still used to this day by the majority of Champagne producers, with very few still opting to produce a cloudy Champagne."
via Leading ladies in winemaking
Though I can trace part of my family back to the early 1500's the image in the previous post is not related to me.
The above image is my Dad's mother, her sister and my some of my aunts.
WHO IS IT THEN????
Melle. de la Vallière
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_de_La_Valli%C3%A8re
Louise de La Vallière (Françoise Louise de La Baume Le Blanc; 6 August 1644 – 7 June 1710) was a mistress of Louis XIV of France from 1661 to 1667. She later became the Duchess of La Vallière and Duchess of Vaujours in her own right. Unlike her rival, Madame de Montespan, she has no surviving descendants. Louise was also very religious and she led a religious penance for herself near the end of her life.
Melle de la Valliere had five children by Louis XIV.
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