Nicolas-Guy BRENET (Paris 1728 - 1792)

Portrait of Charlotte Herts Canvas 78.5 x 67 cm Signed and dated center right Brenet / 1770 Provenance : Collection of the model, wife of Charles-François de Casteele; Collection of their daughter Mélanie, wife of the Comte de Puget; Always in the family. Our painting is an addition to the small corpus of portraits painted by Nicolas Brenet (see M. Fournier, Nicolas Guy Brenet, Paris, 2023, n°105-109, reproduced). Marie Fournier recalls that in 1770, public commissions were declining and Brenet had completed his major commissions: -the cycle for the church of Pont-de-Vaux in the Ain region, completed in 1769 -the commission for the Chartreuse de Montmerle in the Ain region, in 1769 -Triomphe de la Vierge for the collegiate church of Saint Pierre in Douai, completed in 1768. It was most probably in Douai that the painter met his model (1748-1785). He produced his most ambitious portrait for her (the other three identified portraits are oval). In her beautiful pink and white dress, Charlotte Herts, soberly wearing her pearl necklace, delicately displays a simple white rose. The year of our painting is the year she married Charles François de Casteele (1748-1781) in Lille. We would like to thank Marie Fournier for confirming the painting's authenticity.