Portrait
HERMANN FIDEL WINTERHALTER (1808–1891)
Trois demoiselles de la famille de Chateaubourg, 1850
Oil on canvas (oval), 40 1/4 x 32 in.
Signed and dated (at center right): H. Winterhalter / 1850
EX COLL.: the de Chateaubourg family, by descent until after 1975 // [Wildenstein Gallery, New York, by 1994]: to private collection, New England, until the present
This striking oval oil portrait depicts the three sisters of the de Chateaubourg family. It amply demonstrates the skill at portraiture that made Hermann a plausible stand-in for his more famous brother. Chateaubourg is a commune in Brittany, and the de Chateaubourg family is diffuse with roots that date back to the eleventh century. That is all that is presently known with respect to the precise identity of these subjects. The girls, all dressed in simple white frocks, form a triangle, a favorite compositional device for group portraits.
The eldest girl sits in the center, supporting her two younger sisters, who lean into her, propping themselves against her lap. Though of different ages, the sisters share a marked family resemblance. The sister on the viewer’s left, the middle child, has a blue scarf draped around one shoulder, while the youngest child, on the right, wears a red, white, and blue plaid ribbon sash around her waist. The eldest, with no embellishment to her white dress, has a small bouquet of flowers on her lap, symbols of promise and purity. She has a nurturing expression on her face, as she shelters her two younger siblings. Her left hand rests on the youngest sister’s left shoulder and her right hand rests on the middle sister’s right forearm. The middle sister seems to look to her older sister for guidance, while the youngest sister engages the viewer directly, with the innocent stare of childhood afforded only to very young children.
Winterhalter’s palette here is fresh and bright. The white of the girls’ dresses and the peaches and cream of their faultless complexions are set off against a backdrop of a brilliant blue sky, flecked with spots of fluffy clouds reflecting shades of pink and gold. The choice to place the girls against a natural background, unencumbered by the finery that money can buy, emphasizes the simple grace of the girls, underscoring the notion of a quality of natural nobility that coincides with high birth. It was just this ability to express the intangible worth of the portrait subject, to paint aristocrats as they preferred to see themselves, and as they preferred the world to see them, that made the Winterhalter studio a favored place for portrait commissions.
