Le maréchal duc de Richelieu, c.1732-42 (oil on canvas)

A contemporary reduced copy of a picture painted by Jean-Marc Nattier in 1732 to decorate the duke’s dining room at the château de Richelieu (Lisbon, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian). Louis-François-Armand Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), great-nephew of Cardinal Richelieu, became a maréchal de France in 1748. He is shown just before his full investiture as a knight of the order of the Saint-Esprit, wearing the white costume of a novice, while the cloak, gloves and order of a full knight lie on the sofa beside him. The image was calculated to remind the observer that he had been called to the order of the Saint Esprit in 1729 at the age of only thirty-two, three years before the normal qualifying age of thirty-five.