JEAN-ETIENNE LIOTARD (1702-1789)

Maria Frederike van Reede-Athlone at Seven Years of Age (1755)

Pastel on vellum (57 x 43 cm)

Paul Getty Museum

To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and “Open in a new tab”

Portraiture reached its most refined and sophisticated state during the 18th century. The number of artists whose chief occupation was the painting of portraits increased greatly, and their subjects began to include members of the burgeoning middle class as well as royal and aristocratic patrons.

Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Liotard was trained in Paris, spent some time in Rome, travelled with English friends to Constantinople, and then worked for varying lengths of time in Vienna, London, Holland, Paris and Lyons, generally returning to Switzerland between his stays abroad. As his popularity spread, his sitters often came to him, but he remained one of the best-travelled figures of his time. Liotard was a very idiosyncratic artist whose personal habits and dress were highly unorthodox; he sometimes sported a long beard or wore Turkish dress. His highly individual lifestyle was reflected in his work and sets it apart from that of his contemporaries.

In his writings, Liotard insisted that painting should adhere strictly to what could be seen with the eyes and employ the least possible embellishment. most of his portraits depict royal sitters or members of the aristocracy rendered sympathetically and without pomp or elaborate trappings. The backgrounds are simple or non-existent, and the sitters often look away as if they were not posing.

The portrait of Maria Frederike van Reede-Athlone (1748-1807) was painted in pastels, Liotard’s favourite medium, between 1755 and 1756, when the artist was working in the Netherlands. Initially, he painted a portrait of the girl’s mother, the Baroness van Reede, who then commissioned one of her daughter´s. Maria Frederike, just seven years old at the time, is shown dressed in a cape of blue velvet trimmed with ermine; she holds a black lap dog who stares at the viewer (one wonders how it was possible to keep the dog quiet during the sitting). The girl’s pretty features and fresh complexion make this one of the most endearing of the artist’s portraits.

The van Reede is an old noble family from Utrecht in the Netherlands. The man responsible for its social prominence was Baron Godert van Reede (1644-1703), a cavalry officer who in 1688 accompained William, Prince of Orange and future King William III of England, in his expedition to take the English throne. Godert obtained several victories over the Jacobites in Ireland and was rewarded, in 1692, with the title of Earl of Athlone. The title became extinct in 1844 upon the death of the 9th Earl. The van Reede family is still extant and its full title is van Reede van Oudtshoorn.