(Paris 1670–1728 Bayonne)
Portrait of a young man, identified as Jacques François Leonor de Goyon de Matignon, reigning Prince of Monaco, in court attire,
inscribed lower left: Jacques Leonor Ma...gnon,
oil on canvas, 202 x 126 cm, framed

We are grateful to Gloria Martinez Leiva, Olivier Ribeton, Stéphan Perreau, Jean Jacques Petit and Claudia Salvi for their help in cataloguing the present painting.

Jean Jacques Petit was the first to suggest the name of Gence for the present impressive portrait, which carries a traditional attribution to Nicolas de Largillière. Other scholars of French portraiture endorsed the attribution. It would appear to be one of the most accomplished works by Gence, who was one of Largillière’s earliest pupils. It betrays the influence of the grand portraitists from the last years of Louis XIV’s reign, such as Rigaud, Ranc, Levrac and, of course, Largillière. A comparably splendid work is Gence’s portrait of Florent Carton, called Dancourt (1704, canvas, 113 x 146 cm, Paris, Musée de la Comédie française), which is set in an equally impressive interior and displays a keen interest in the decorative arts, such as in the depiction of a Boulle bureau plat, which is echoed in the impressive console table in the present painting (see O. Ribeton, Robert Gabriel Gence, vers 1670–1728 et quelques portraitistes travaillant pour la région de Bayonne dans la première moitié du XVIIIe siècle, catalogue contribution, Les cahiers d’histoire de l’art, no. 8, 2010, pp. 138–156, 143, fig. 8).

Claudia Salvi has suggested that the elegant floral bouquet may have been painted by the still life painter Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay the Younger (Paris 1668–1730). This collaboration of the two artists would reflect a similar working process previously adopted by Fontenay’s father, Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay the Elder (Caen 1653–1715 Paris), with Gence’s master, Largillière. Belin the Elder often painted floral garlands around oval portraits by Largillière.

Gence, who worked in Paris and Versailles with Largilliere and Ranc, later became court painter to the widowed Queen of Spain, Marianne of Pfalz-Neuburg, in Bayonne (see G. Martinez Leiva, El exilio de la Reina Viuda Mariana de Neoburgo y la configuración de un nuevo retrato áulico, in: Actas Carlos II y el Arte de su tiempo, Fundación Universitaria Española, Madrid 2012). His later works demonstrate the fate of many painters active outside the artistic centres and tend to lack the sophistication and elegance of the present, truly “Grand Manner” portrait. It would appear to be entirely plausible, therefore, to follow the traditional identification that is supported by an old inscription. Jacques François Leonor Goyon de Matignon would have been around 20 years old when this portrait was painted. A young man as grand as him would surely have commissioned the best portrait painter, or at least his pupil. It remains unclear, however, if the sitter can be identified as Matignon. There are no comparable portraits of him at such a young age, and therefore the traditional identification cannot be maintained without a certain degree of caution.
The sitter must be a member of the high nobility and if not a Prince de Sangue, as his red heels and the tongues of his shoes suggest. Gence painted some very similar portraits, with almost identical poses and equally impressive sartorial details, including the same “talons rouges” and tongues. A good example is the portrait of a young man, which was sold at Christie’s in 2008 (oil on canvas, 175 x 130 cm, see O. Ribeton, op. cit. p. 152, fig. 33).

Jacques François Leonor Goyon de Matignon was one of the more controversial men to hold the title of Prince of Monaco. In 1715 he married Hereditary Princess Louise-Hippolyte of Monaco, the daughter and successor of Sovereign Prince Antoine I. In 1731, upon the death of Antoine I, Prince Jacques became “Sovereign Consort” of Monaco. The line of Prince Jacques I was secured by the birth of eight children from 1717 to 1728. When the couple came to the throne the people of Monaco welcomed their Princess but scorned their new Prince, who they thought was arrogant with no care for the people and only a concern with what he could gain from the Principality. Even before assuming the throne, he avoided Monaco and preferred to stay at the French court of Versailles, enjoying a succession of mistresses.

Prince Jacques I was the effective ruler of Monaco, especially after Princess Louise-Hippolyte died of smallpox only eleven months into her reign. With no more opposition Jacques I was able to assume total control of Monaco and was recognised as the Sovereign Prince by the King of France. But finally, with public opposition to his rule showing no signs of letting up, he left Monaco in May 1732 and the following year abdicated in favour of his son, Prince Honoré III. The new Sovereign Prince was barely 14. Prince Jacques returned to his favoured lifestyle in Versailles and Paris where he spent the rest of his life before his death on April 23, 1751. His former residence in Paris, named the Hôtel Matignon is today the official residence of the French prime minister.