Duke Philip of Bourbon-Parma, marble bust by Jean-Baptiste Boudard, signed and dated 1765

Marble bust with circular wooden base. The sitter looks slightly to his left. He wears a periwig, tied with a bow behind, a high cravat, armour, ruffles at the shoulder and a swirling cloak. The order of the Golden Fleece is suspended on the breast by a ribbon. Inscribed on the back. The bust when acquired had no base and a plain circular collar in wood was made for it in the Museum.

Purchased with the assistance of Cyril Humphris Esq.

The vendor bought the bust at Sotheby's on December 16th 1971 (Lot 150) for £2,900 (The Property of a Gentleman). It was then catalogued incorrectly as a portrait of the Marachal de Saxe. The earlier history if unknown but the bust may be identical to one sold at Galerie Georges Petit, paris in 1886, Lot 41 in Catalogue des Objects d'art....provenant du château historique de Langeais. The château de Langeais had belonged to the ducs de Luynes from 1766. Abandoned at the Revolution it was bought in 1833 by a M. baron. After 1886 it was refurnished by its last owner M. Jacques Siegfried, who gave it in 1904 to the Institute de France. Therefore the 1886 sale must have been of the effects in the château during the ownership of M. Baron.

Duke Philip of Bourbon-Parma who ruled Parma and Piacenza from 1748 until his death in 1765, made his duchies into an island of French culture in Italy. Boudard spent most of his life in the service of the court at Parma and was associated with the French architect Petitot in remodelling the ducal palaces.

A.2-1972