Jean-Philippe de La Roche

The present newly discovered painting of the celebrated eighteenth century ballet dancer was commissioned in 1742 by Count Carl Gustaf Tessin (1695-1770), Swedish ambassador to Paris between 1739-42. During his stay in Paris, Tessin commissioned several portraits from Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766), the most thought after portrait painter in Paris at the time. Amongst them were portraits of his wife, Ulrika Lovisa Sparre of Sundby (1711-68) (Musée du Louvre) and his niece, Charlotta Sparre (1719-1795) (National Gallery of Ireland).
In 1741, Tessin's own portrait was painted by Louise Tocqué (1696-1772), Nattier´s son-in-law (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm).

Jean-Philippe de La Roche, Peintre du Cabinet du Roi, was brother-in-law to Nattier and in the 1740s´ worked in his studio. In 1724 Nattier had married his sister, Marie Madeleine de La Roche (1708-1742). Their father, Pierre de La Roche (1638-1715), married to Marie-Anne Levasseur, was one of King Louis XIV:s Muscateers´. By 1742, Nattier was in high demand. To ease the workload, de La Roche, as well as official court painters such as Coqueret, Prevost, Frey and Hellart helped in producing replica portraits. The present picture is de La Roche´s earliest known work and his first known independent work. Few works by him are known. In 1752 he was payed 750 livres for copying five Royal portraits and in 1754, 500 livres for a copy of a portrait of King Louis XV. In 1757 he painted two pictures of unknown subjects for the Oratory of Madame de Pompadour in the Chapel in Versailles. The same year the Dauphin (Louis XVI) commissioned him to copy a portrait of his wife for countess de Bellegarde (Chateau de Versailles), which hitherto constituted the only known picture by La Roche. In 1761, together with Coqueret, Prevost, and Hellart, he decorated the Chinese cabinet of Queen Maria Lezczynska. La Roche died in Versailles 1767.
The present painting is the only known portrait of La Barbarina painted in France and one of the earliest known depictions of her. It was commissioned before March 1742 as it is mentioned in a letter that month to Tessin from his wife (G. Von Proschwitz, 1984, op. cit.). Tessin attended at least one of La Barbarini´s performances in Paris in 1739 and became one of her great admirers. Here La Barbarina is portrayed in a park in a dancing pose. The park is most likely intended to allude to the park of Versailles, where she is known to have performed. Other artists who portrayed her include Rosalba Carriera, c. 1739 (Staatlische Kunstsammlungen Dresden), Antoine Pesne, 1745 (Schloss Charlottenburg, Potsdam, Germany), and posthumously, Adolph von Menzel. An engraving by Hogarth, The Charmers of the Age, also depicts her performing a dance together with the ballet dancer Philip Denoyer. Hogarth´s engraving, conceived in 1740, was, however, first published in 1787.
Barbara Campanini (Parma 1721-1799 Castle Barschau, Schlesia), known as La Barbarini, was the most renowned ballerina of her time. At the age of 10, she studied at the Teatro Farnese under Antonio Rinaldi, known as Fossano. She began her dancing career at the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris in 1739 where she made her stage debut in Jean-Philippe Rameau´s (1735-1764) ballet Les fêtes d’Hébé ou les Talents lyriques, which premiered 14 July, which included four solodances written especially for her. The ballet was an enormous success and over 50 performances were given. La Barbarina also danced at Fontainebleau and Versailles and was presented to King Louis XV. In 1740 she travelled to London where she performed at Covent Garden in ballets such as Italian Peasants, Mars and Venus and Le Tirolesi. At Cliveden in 1740, she appeared before Prince Frederick of Wales and his wife Augusta of Brunswick. She returned to Paris in 1741 via Vienna where she performed in L´empire de l´amour and Les festes greques et romaines. According to Voltaire, a secret to her enormous success was her manly legs, which made her capable of unusually large jumps. In 1744, La Barbarina was employed by Fredrik the Great of Prussia, who had seen her perform in Paris, and she moved to Berlin. There Fredrik the Great soon became one of her many lovers (he had been preceded by the Prince of Savoy-Carignano, the Prince de Conti, the Duc de Durfort and the British Peer the Earl of Arundel). La Barbarina was given a palace where she entertained on a high social level. In 1745, Fredrik the Great commissioned his court painter Antoine Pesne to paint her portrait, which on competion was then hung in his study.
La Barbarina´s life following her move to Berlin is a tale of professional success mixed with a scandalous private life carried out amongst the social elite of Europe. Fredrik the Great´s passion for La Barbarina was not mutual. She soon escaped with another lover, Lord Stuart Mackenzie, to Venice. Fredrik the Great, however, execised his diplomatic power, and she was escorted back to Berlin by his military aid. In 1748, she secretly got engaged to Charles-Louis de Coccei, the son of his prime minister. On discovering this, she fell out of favour with Fredrik the Great and she was forced to sell her palace. In 1759, the couple divorced. In 1788, La Barbarina was made countess Campanini by Fredrik the Great´s successor, his nephew, Frederick William II of Prussia. In her will she donated her money by will to a foundation for poor noblewomen, both catholic and protestant, which lasted until World War I. Fascination with La Barbarina has lasted well beyond her lifetime and in 1920 it inspired the film, Die Tänzerin Barbarini and in 1935 the ballet, Barbarina (for further reading see W. Röseler, Die Barbarina, 1890; J. J. Olivier and W. Norbert, Barbarina Campanini, 1909; M. Clarce & C. Crisp, Ballet in Art, from the Renaissance to the Present,1978, p. 26, no. 24; International Encyclopedia of Dance, Vol. 1, 1998 and P. H. Highfill Jr, K. A. Burnim & E. A. Langhaus, Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, Other Stage Personell 1660-1800 in London, Vol. 3.).

Bukowskis is grateful to Roger de Robelin, the reknown expert on Tessin, for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.