Roger de Bussy-Rabutin by Claude Lefebvre

The portrait painted by Claude Lefèbvre, which has been widely copied and engraved, is the best known in the iconography of Bussy-Rabutin. In 1685, the Abbé de Dangeau commissioned a series of 94 portraits of members of the Academy, of which Bussy-Rabutin was one, having held seat number 20 from 1665 until his death, and his portrait is a copy of Claude Lefèbvre’s. It is also highly likely that another copy of the portrait was sent to Madame de Scudéry, a close friend of Bussy-Rabutin. In a letter dated 27 July 1678, she indeed mentions: ‘As he entered my room, he [the Duke of Saint-Aignan], his eyes fixed on your portrait, said to me, “There is our friend, smiling at me.”’ (Correspondence of Roger de Rabutin, Count of Bussy, with his family and friends (1666–1693), Volume 4, p. 164).

Claude Lefebvre’s works were highly sought after by the aristocracy for their likeness, and it is for this reason that his output was so prolific, whilst, paradoxically, very few painted examples remain. A pupil of his father, Jean I Lefebvre, he studied at Fontainebleau and subsequently attended the studio of Le Sueur, then that of Le Brun. The latter had him work on the figures in his large-scale compositions, and it was in this field that he subsequently specialised. His portraits were initially influenced by the style of Philippe de Champaigne, and later by that of Le Brun. Over the course of his career, he moved from the rigorous composition of the former to a freer and more natural style.

The portrait was painted in 1673 (Th. Lhuillier, *Le peintre Claude Lefèbvre*, 1892, pp. 487–510), when Bussy-Rabutin was fifty-five years old and in exile. Claude Lefèbvre was then a court painter and is thought to have met Bussy-Rabutin in the studio of Charles Le Brun, the King’s principal painter, alongside the Count of Brienne. The two aristocrats were at that time actively seeking to build up their art collections, which they were constantly expanding.

This commission served as a means of revisiting the past glory of a military man who had never attained the title he sought. He had in fact hoped to be awarded the Order of the Holy Spirit, which he never received. In a letter to the Count of Gramont, dated 26 April 1670, he refers to this: ‘As for the blue cord which you all wish to see in my portrait, I shall tell you that whatever favour the King may ever bestow upon me, I shall receive it with respect; but if the matter were up to me, after the wrongs done to me and the honours bestowed upon people who have neither served as long nor as well as I have, I would prefer that nothing be done for me rather than that a great deal be done.”

The portrait of the castle’s owner takes pride of place in the enigmatic hall of mottos. Surrounding it, five mottos each add their own flavour to the mischievous smile and seductive gaze of this portrait:

- A jet of water (Altus ab origine alta, ‘it draws its height from its original height’)

- A jetof water (Altus ab origine alta, ‘it draws its height from its original height’)

- A volcanic eruption (the cause is hidden)

- A bird on a tree (Degli amori miei canti, ‘I sing of my loves’)

- A watch (Quieto fuori e si move dentro, ‘still on the outside, it moves within’)