Louise Renee de Penancoet de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth and Aubigny (1649-1734)
c.1673RCIN 405882
The duchess was an influential figure at court, promoting French interests and often acting as an intermediary between the king, his ministers and the French ambassadors, though she was deeply disliked by the English people. Her magnificent apartments at Whitehall, at the southern end of the Long Matted Gallery, were the focus of both pleasure and power, their lavish decoration signifying her political and social influence at court.
The duchess's influence ceased with the king's death in 1685 and she returned to France soon afterwards. French artists such as Philippe Vignon and Henri Gascar (1634/ 5–1701; cat. 167) were encouraged by the duchess, although she was also painted by Lely (Althorp; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles). Vignon was appointed as Limner in Ordinary to Charles II in 1669. He has depicted the duchess wearing a low-cut lavender-coloured gown brocaded with gold flowers and lined with blue silk over a loose chemise with flowers at her breast. Her fashionable French hairstyle known as l'hurlu brelu, was said to have been devised by the French hairdresser Madame Martin at the court of Versailles in 1671.
Text adapted from Charles II: Art and Power, London, 2017.