(Brussels 1602–1674 Paris)
Portrait of Jacqueline-Marie Arnauld, called Angelique Arnauld, Abesse de Port-Royal,
inscribed: ANNO. 1654. AETs.62.(left); OBIJT.6. AVG.1661(right),
oil on canvas, 56.5 x 44.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Lorenzo Pericolo for suggesting the attribution on the basis of high resolution digital photgraphs.

The present painting is a portrait of La Mère Angélique, born Jacqueline-Marie-Angélique Arnauld, who was abbess of Port-Royal-des-Champs from 1648 until her death in 1661. She is depicted in three-quarter profile within an oval against a dark background. She wears a black veil and white scapular, on top of which lies the red cross of the Blessed Sacrament and a rosary is visible near her belt. The inscription at the top left of the painted oval frame indicates the year in which the portrait was executed (1654, when she was 62 years of age), and that on the right givesthe date of her death (6th August 1661).

The present painting is related to the portrait in the Louvre that portrays La Mère Angélique, sitting in a bare room, beyond a view of Port Royal. The three-quarter profile of the nun and her clothes are the same as those in the present painting. The inscription is also identical, but in the Louvre picture it is located on the right-hand wall. There is a further similar variant in the Musée de Versailles. The nun was portrayed on several occasions by Philippe de Champaigne, and the success of these portraits in the Port Royal area is attested to by the replicas and copies. For example, his portrait of 1648, which is also conserved at the Musée de Versailles and of which there is a copy in Chantilly.

Champaigne may have been given the commission for the present painting by the sisters of the Parisian convent, probably due to the fact that Arnauld moved to the abbey of Port-Royal-des-Champs that same year. The painter was particularly close to the community of Port Royal, having sent his two daughters to the Parisian convent. After a long career almost exclusively in the service of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, Philippe de Champaigne established himself from the mid-1640s as a great portraitist of the aristocracy and Parisian clergy, receiving commissions from parishes and religious orders, including the community of the two convents of Port-Royal-des-Champs and Paris.