Born at Fontainebleau, the son of the sculptor and engraver Jean Gobert II (1627-c.1681), Pierre Gobert learnt to paint in his father’s studio and began to work for the court at a very young age. He spent most of his time in Paris and became a member of the Académie in 1701. His reputation as Louis XIV court’s portraitist is illustrated by the substantial collection at Versailles, including portraits of the Duchess of Maine, Anne-Lucie de la Mothe-Houdancourt and the Duchess of Burgundy. Amongst his numerous male portraits is a portrait of Louis XV as a boy. Gobert exhibited at the Salon in 1704 and 1737. From 1707-9 the artist settled in Lunéville working for the court of Lorraine where he painted an impressive group of seventy portraits, among them that of Léopold, Duke of Lorraine and his wife Elizabeth-Charlotte d’Orleans.

This portrait is first recorded at St James’s Palace in 1819 (no 1056), described simple as ‘Portrait of a Lady’ and hanging next to a portrait of ‘Duchess de Bourbon’ (no 1057, now identified as Gobert’s Charlotte Aglaé, RCIN 407214). Both paintings were still paired in the Queen’s Guard Chamber at Hampton Court in 1861 (nos 984-5), where they are described (in this case) as ‘Marianne Duchesse de Bourbon daughter of the Prince de Condé’ and (in the case of 407214) as ‘Madamoiselle de Clerimont’. An inscription on the reverse confirms that the portrait was believed to depict Marie Anne de Bourbon (1689-1720), daughter of François Louis, Prince of Conti, who married the duc de Bourbon in 1713. It does certainly resemble portraits of the Duchess, though French princesses of this date can look quite similar. RCIN 407214 has been identified as Charlotte Aglaé of Orléans, Mademoiselle de Valois (1700-1761) by comparison with an identical image in the Museum at Riga in Latvia, which calls the original identifications into question. This portrait may be dated to 1710-20 by its costume, so it may depict the Duchess of Bourbon soon after her marriage or an unknown sitter.