18th Century French School

This magnificent pastel painting depicts Madame de Bled sitting in a armchair. She is adorned in a beautiful silk dress with a plethora of blue ribbons, as well as a delicate lace headdress, representing the fashion of the late Louis XV and early Louis XVI eras. Crafted by an unidentified but skilled artist, this portrait from approximately 1770 includes a gilded wooden frame and has been meticulously restored. The pastel on paper is mounted on acid-free cardboard and is accompanied by an original handwritten biography of the subject.

Marie Elisabeth Anne de Bled was born in Quebec, Canada, on 13 February 1720. She was daughter of Charles de Bled, a royal surveyor from Normandy, France. Orphaned of father at the age of 5 and of mother at 14, she married before her 15th birthday to the merchant Jean Baptiste de Lagroix, 13 years her senior, with whom she had three children. Widowed in 1747, she remarried on 23 October 1753 (and not in 1750 as the label indicates) to Jean François Jacquelin, merchant and shipowner, with whom she had a son. The family relocated to France in 1766, after the cession of Quebec to Great Britain, and settled in La Rochelle, where Elisabeth de Bled died on 29 April 1798, aged 78.

Source: Archives de France.

Artist: Unknown (unsigned).
Medium: Pastel on paper.
Condition Excellent condition.
Dimensions : 58 x 48 cm. / 22 3/4 x19 in.
Frame: 72 x 62 cm. / 28 1/4 x 24 1/2 in. Gilt wood, very good condition.
Origin: France.