Paintings
Mary Josephine Drummond, Condesa de Castelblanco, as Astrea
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The painting is a reduction of one by Largillierre in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, traditionally thought, on the basis of provenance, to represent the marquise de Dreux-Brézé but in 1981 correctly identified as condesa de Castelblanco. Another, larger reduction by Oudry painted after the sitter's death is in the Museo del Prado, Madrid; the face of the sitter in the present portrait is more reminiscent of the Prado version than that in Montreal, suggesting that it could be by (or after) Oudry.
Astrea was the shepherdess heroine of L'Astrée, a novel published 1607-10 by Honoré d'Urfé (1607-1627) and a popular inspiration for female portraits in the seventeenth century. The dog, a symbol of fidelity, suggests that the portrait was commissioned to celebrate the sitter's marriage to the conde de Castelblanco in 1710. The Montreal portrait is inscribed on the back of the canvas in eighteenth-century handwriting: Agée de 20 ans. Le 14 Janvier 1710.
Astrea was the shepherdess heroine of L'Astrée, a novel published 1607-10 by Honoré d'Urfé (1607-1627) and a popular inspiration for female portraits in the seventeenth century. The dog, a symbol of fidelity, suggests that the portrait was commissioned to celebrate the sitter's marriage to the conde de Castelblanco in 1710. The Montreal portrait is inscribed on the back of the canvas in eighteenth-century handwriting: Agée de 20 ans. Le 14 Janvier 1710.
