1790 -
Versailles - Paris - 1870
"Scenes
from the life of Jeanne of Navarre, Duchesse de Bretagne"
Pair of
Paintings
Oil on Canvas,
54 x 65 cm ( x inches)
Note
Sarazin
de Belmont was one of the best pupils of Valenciennes whose Neo-classical ideals
she faithfully represented. She was a regular exhibitor at the Salons for most
of her active life. Later in life her landscapes become considerably less
classical and much more Romantic, with dark trees, heavy brooding skies and a
much broader brush. Indeed she could almost have been mistaken for an active and
distinguished member of the progressive Barbizon school, were it not for the
fact that she was by then a respected old lady with many years of exhibiting in
the Salon behind her. The present
pair can be seen as transitional, probably in the late 1830’s, romanticised on
the one hand but still painted with the precise technique she had learned from
her masters. The paintings can also
be associated with the ‘Troubadour’ tradition
I
have not been able to identify the exact subjects. The one painting is inscribed on the verso _ Jeanne of
Navarre who was indeed the mother of Arthur III (1393-1458), Comte de Richemont,
Connétable de France, Duc de Bretagne (1457-1458).
The inheritance of the Duchy of Bretagne is complex but he was ultimately
the ancestor of Anne de Bretagne (1488 -1514) who married both Charles VIII and
Louis XII . Hence the later Kings
of France descend from Jeanne and Arthur.
The
present paintings seem to show Jeanne taking leave of a knight in crusader garb,
presumably her husband Jean IV (he had been married to Marie d’Angleterre, and
Jeanne of Kent first, before he married her). But as far as I can ascertain he never went to a crusade and
it was anyway too late a date for crusades.
The second scene shows her introducing her son to the tomb of his father,
a well known heroic scene. It is to
be presumed that the father died nobly (or was thought to have done so) and the
son is being made to swear to be as noble (or to avenge) his exemplary father.
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