By Sarah Hall, executive director, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts

School of Mathieu Le Nain (French, (1607-1677)
Portrait of Henri Coiffier de Ruze, Marquis de Cinq Mars. Oil on canvas. C. 1640
76.5″H x 42″
Gift of Chester D. Tripp, AO671,53.00

The subject Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, the Marquis de Cinq-Mars (1620–1642) is depicted about age 20. Unsurprisingly, based on the sumptuousness of his apparel, he was a favorite of King Louis XIII. Henri’s father was a close friend of Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642), the king’s powerful first minister.

Upon his father’s death, the young Henri (age 12) was raised under the protection of Richelieu and advanced quickly at court; by age 15 he was made commander of a company of bodyguards. His rise to becoming the king’s favorite was orchestrated by Richelieu, who hoped to control both his young charge and the King.

By the time Cinq-Mars was 19, he was appointed the Grand Écuyer de France, a prestigious post that made him an official member of the king’s household. The position roughly translates to the English equivalent of Master of the Horse. He was in charge of the royal stables (hence the visual references to riding in our portrait). In this position, he had a large scope of responsibility, including arranging ceremonial functions, managing the king’s transport, overseeing horse breeding, and helping to train younger members of the aristocracy.

The young noble rapidly outgrew any influence Richelieu might have had over him and instead attempted to turn King Louis against Richelieu. After a first failed attempt as part of a 1641 rebellion organized by the king’s second cousin the Comte de Soissons, Cinq-Mars was undeterred. He next conspired with the king’s brother to try to overthrow Richelieu. Unfortunately, Richelieu’s spies uncovered the plot and had Cinq-Mars imprisoned and hastily beheaded on September 12, 1642. (Cinq-Mars’ last words are recorded as “My God! What is this world?) Ironically, Richelieu himself died that December, having been in failing health for some time.

It’s possible the source of our grand portrait was commissioned when the young Cinq-Mars received his appointment as Grand Écuyer. I say “source” of our portrait because what we have in the collection is a copy of an original. It’s attributed to the School of Mathieu Le Nain because it is believed the artist worked under Le Nain’s influence, but not within his studio, and was likely making a copy of the official portrait.

Full-length portraits like this (at the time more often referred to as “whole-length”) were usually commissioned to commemorate significant events. Three versions of this painting are known to exist. One, presumably the original, in a private collection, and our copy, likely from a bit later in the 17^th century. The third version was commissioned in 1837 by Louis Phillipe, the last French monarch, from artist Joseph Léon de Lestang-Parade and hangs at Versailles. That copy, made about 200 years after the original, was prompted by a renewed interest in Cinq-Mars’s dramatic, short blaze of life.

There was a historical novel based on his life published in 1826 and an opera loosely based on the novel premiered in 1877 (both titled Cinq-Mars). Visual Artists were also intrigued by the romantic and tragic story of Cinq-Mars; perhaps the most famous painting is Paul Delaroche’s depiction of Cinq-Mars and his co-conspirator traveling by boat along the Rhone to their execution.

Paul Delaroche, The State Barge of Cardinal Richelieu on the Rhone (detail), 1829. Oil on canvas. The Wallace Collection. In this historical painting you can see Richelieu in his luxurious barge at the right, with the more utilitarian boat in the rear ferrying the young, dashing Cinq-Mars to meet his fate.

French Baroque painter Mathieu Le Nain was one of three artist brothers who, for most of their careers simply signed their paintings “Le Nain.” The Le Nain (as Mathieu and his two brothers Antoine and Louis have come to be known) are a fascinating story unto themselves. The Le Nain were extremely successful in their lifetime, but have remained largely in obscurity since. Scholars have spent considerable time trying to unravel their work and understand the contributions of each brother to their work as a whole.

Although born in Laon, France, all three brothers were living in Paris by 1630. For many years it was thought that Antoine and Louis were considerably older than Mathieu, but more recent scholarship suggests that all three brothers were born between 1600 and 1607. Antoine (born c. 1600) and Louis (born c. 1603) died in 1648, just two months after the founding (and their acceptance into) the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Mathieu, who survived whatever presumable contagion took his brothers, continued painting and became best known for his religious paintings and portraits. There was a major international exhibition of the brothers’ work back in 2016, and you can learn more about them, and see other examples of their work here: https://patrons.org.es/the-brothers-le-nain/2016.

Our painting came to us in 1951 as a gift of Chester D. Tripp (1832–1974), a well-known Chicago collector. Tripp was likely fascinated, as we are, by all aspects of the painting’s powerful presence—its demonstration of what full-length portraiture can do in terms of glorifying rank and status, and its tragic coda—a commentary in itself on both the politics and power struggles of monarchy and the fragility of human ambition.