Madame Geoffrin
- Date
- after 1738
- Object type
- painting
- Technique
- oil
- Material
- canvas
- Dimensions
- 32,6 x 26,7 cm
- Acquisition date
- 1783
- Location
- The Palace on the Isle - Portrait Room, ground floor
- Marks and inscriptions
- red number 132 of the Stanisław August collection, bottom left
- Place of Origin
- Paris (France)
- Owner
- The Royal Łazienki
- Museum number
- ŁKr 888
Marie-Thérèse Rodet (1699–1777), from 1713 married to François Geoffrin, established at her home in the rue Saint-Honoré in Paris one of the most famous salons of the 18th century which brought together philosophers, writers and artists. Friend and mentor to Stanisław August, she visited Warsaw in 1766. Her correspondence with the Polish monarch is a rich source of information about the artistic activities and tastes of Stanisław August.
In the catalogues of the king’s collection, as well as in 19th-century sources, the portrait and its pendant, which shows the sitter’s daughter (cat. no. 78), was recorded without naming the author. Stanisław Iskierski (…) was the first to publish both paintings as copies after Nattier, and their prototypes by Nattier were indicated by the authors of the 1967 catalogue of the National Museum in Warsaw.
… . During her stay in Warsaw in 1766, Madame Geoffrin promised Stanisław August that she would send him her portrait by Nattier, but on her return to Paris she changed her mind. In a letter dated 7 June 1767 she explained that the portrait was too flamboyant (‘grand’) and that sending it to Poland would be an impertinence and she would be subject to ridicule … . So eventually the king had in his collection only a copy reduced to bust-length, perhaps painted by an assistant which, however, the king valued—most probably for sentimental reasons—since it decorated his Study in the Łazienki Palace, and after his abdication was to be sent to Grodno at his request… . [See D. Juszczak, H. Małachowicz, The Stanisław August Collection of Paintings at the Royal Łazienki. Catalogue, Royal Łazienki Museum, Warsaw 2016, no. 77, pp. 291–293.]
