DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45257#0385
PORTRAITS OF THE ROYAL CHILDREN 229
Germain le Mannier1 and his brother Alois. There
exist pencil sketches of Francis II at the age of five,
and again at eight years and five months ; to which
latter there is a pendant representing his fiancle,
Mary, Queen of Scots, at the age of nine and a half.
There is another of Charles IX aged between four
and five years. All of these were executed by this
artist and are now in the portfolios at Chantilly.
With reference to these drawings there is a
letter still extant, written on June 1 1552 by
Queen Catherine to M. Humi£res (who with his
wife were in charge of the Royal nurseries at
Saint-Germain-en-Laye), in which she expresses a
desire to have all her children, sons and daughters,
including la Royne d'Ecosse? painted “sans rien
oublier de leur visages.” There is also a letter from
Henri II, written on the eve of his accession, express-
ing a desire to recompense the painter Mannier.
This, however, did not prevent him, as soon
as he became King, from taking up Francois
Clouet, whom he commissioned not only to make
a post-mortem effigy of the late King, but also to
prepare an official representation of himself. His
own portrait bears a note upon it, apparently in the
artist’s own handwriting, “Le Roy Henry 2 ”3: hand-
writing which bears close similarity to an existing
quittance signed F. Clouet. This drawing, now in
the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, became very
1 G. Moreau Nelaton, Les Le Mannier.
2 See Frontispiece.
3 See Plate X.
15*
Germain le Mannier1 and his brother Alois. There
exist pencil sketches of Francis II at the age of five,
and again at eight years and five months ; to which
latter there is a pendant representing his fiancle,
Mary, Queen of Scots, at the age of nine and a half.
There is another of Charles IX aged between four
and five years. All of these were executed by this
artist and are now in the portfolios at Chantilly.
With reference to these drawings there is a
letter still extant, written on June 1 1552 by
Queen Catherine to M. Humi£res (who with his
wife were in charge of the Royal nurseries at
Saint-Germain-en-Laye), in which she expresses a
desire to have all her children, sons and daughters,
including la Royne d'Ecosse? painted “sans rien
oublier de leur visages.” There is also a letter from
Henri II, written on the eve of his accession, express-
ing a desire to recompense the painter Mannier.
This, however, did not prevent him, as soon
as he became King, from taking up Francois
Clouet, whom he commissioned not only to make
a post-mortem effigy of the late King, but also to
prepare an official representation of himself. His
own portrait bears a note upon it, apparently in the
artist’s own handwriting, “Le Roy Henry 2 ”3: hand-
writing which bears close similarity to an existing
quittance signed F. Clouet. This drawing, now in
the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, became very
1 G. Moreau Nelaton, Les Le Mannier.
2 See Frontispiece.
3 See Plate X.
15*