File:Portrait of André Joseph Hippolyte de Gramont.jpg

Portrait of André Joseph Hippolyte de Gramont, marquis de Gramont Vachères, comte de Gramont Caderousse, and later duc de Caderousse

inscribed upper right: MARQUIS DE GRAMONT

oil on canvas, unlined

25 ¾ by 21 ⅝ in.; 65.4 by 54.9 cm.

This distinguished portrait of André Joseph Hippolyte (1761-1817), marquis de Gramont Vachères, comte de Gramont Caderousse, and later duc de Caderousse, was painted circa 1778, shortly before his marriage to Marie Gabrielle de Sinety (1761-1832).1 The sitter cuts an elegant figure against the austere background, his distinguished air deriving as much from the restrained hauteur of his pose as from his resplendent dress, which offsets his handsome features. While the painting's attribution remains elusive, its quality is evident.

A member of the upper echelons of the French aristocracy, André Joseph wears the elaborate uniform of the first company of the Garde du Corps, the aristocratic branch of King Louis XVI’s household guard.2 The artist lavished great care on Gramont’s attire, especially the extensive scallop-edged silver braid that ornaments the navy coat and bright red waistcoat. Depicted without a wig, as was fashionable in the late eighteenth century, the sitter wears a black solitaire “bow tie” around his white neckstock. A small white enamel Maltese cross hangs from his left lapel, beside which a three-cornered hat is tucked under his arm.3

Born in Provence, André Joseph enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the royal army, serving first as a musketeer and chevau-léger in the king’s light cavalry, and later as a captain and colonel in the Regiment de Cuirassiers du Roi.4 In the presence of members of the royal family, he married Marie Gabrielle de Sinety on 31 January 1779 at Versailles, where in July of that year the couple were formally presented at court. Marie Gabrielle joined Marie Antoinette’s noblesse de cour and in 1785 Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun painted her portrait.5 Executed just as the young artist was coming into her own, the commission underscores the wealth and social status of the Gramonts. Together the couple had four children and lived between Paris and Avignon in the hôtel d’Ancézune, but later in life they obtained a financial separation.6

1 His other nobiliary titles included marquis de Codolet; comte de Sézanne; baron du Thor and Velorgues; and seigneur de Montelard, Vaugelas, Pelourson, Chapeau Cornu, Vigniere, Areisse, Vasselin, Coyrol, Frigoulets and Cabrièle.

2 See the illustration for the “Gardes du Corp du Roy,” in the 1779 manuscript, Uniformes militaires des troupes françaises sous Louis XVI. Paris, Musée de l’Armée, inv. no. 10866.

3 André Joseph was made a Knight of Malta when only two years old.

4 Although not the eldest, André Joseph inherited his father’s title as his brothers all met unfortunate ends: one died of illness; one killed in Italy, another in the Siege of Prague; and one seriously wounded and taken prisoner of war at the latter. André Joseph also had three sisters, one of whom became a canoness at Château Chalone in eastern France. See Mémoires du Duc de Luynes sur la cour de Louis XV, vol. VI, Paris 1861, p. 271.

5 On that work, see Baillio 2021.