If you open an art history book, you might find some pretty intriguing images.
For example, Hieronymus Bosch’s the Garden of Earthly Delights where you can see this;
or Grant Wood’s Parson Weems’ Fable, where you can see a tiny George Washington (we made
a video about this one).
This painting however, isn’t only intriguing, but also mysterious.
Nobody knows who painted it, but we do know, or at least we presume, that the woman on
the right is Gabrielle d’Estrées, the mistress and advisor of Henry IV, the king of France
between 1589 and 1610.
Alright well, we know this is Gabrielle d’Estrées and art historians have estimated the date
of this painting to be around 1594, but that doesn’t explain much.
I bet you still have so many questions.
Let me add to your bewilderment: the woman on the left is Julienne d’Estrées…
Gabrielle’s sister.
So why are there two adult sisters taking a bath together?
And more importantly, why is one of them pinching the other’s nipple?
To understand its origin, we can go about 20 years back, in 1571, to look at Dame au
Bain, or A Lady in Her Bath by François Clouet.
This painting undoubtably inspired the anonymous artist behind Gabrielle d’Estrées and One
of her Sisters.
The bather’s identity is not certain, but it’s believed to be either a young Mary
Queen of Scots or one of Henry II’s mistress, Diane de Poitiers who, like Gabrielle d’Estrées,
had enormous power and influence over the king.
She is painted naked in a bath covered by some white cloth.
Red curtains are pushed on either side of the frame, revealing a busy scene behind the
bather: A kid reaches out for some fruits, a wet nurse is breastfeeding an infant and
a servant is carrying a pitcher, probably to refill the bathtub.
The anonymous painter’s composition is quite similar to this painting.
You first have, of course, the very realistic red curtains, revealing the scene.
The bathers are in a tub covered with white cloth, the background shows even more red
draperies framing a green table, a fire place, the bottom left corner of a painting and a
working servant.
Our anonymous painter definitely took inspiration from Clouet’s painting.
In another version of Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters, we see the same wet
nurse feeding an infant.
Again, in another version of the painting, the back curtains are closed and the scene
is focused solely on the two sisters.
Julienne is sitting on the tub’s lid while Gabrielle is pinching her left ring finger.
This finally leads us to this painting, showing us Gabrielle d’Estrées in 1594.
That year was very important to Gabrielle as it was the year of birth of her first son,
César de Vendôme, illegitimate child of king Henry IV.
This painting is a depiction of Gabrielle d’Estrées’ pregnancy.
The servant in the background is making clothes for the soon-to-come baby.
The ring Gabrielle is holding could be the king’s coronation ring, a symbol of love
and fidelity.
A couple of years later, Henry IV would give his coronation ring to Gabrielle.
Finally, the pinching of Gabrielle’s nipple is simply symbolizing maternal milk, showing
Gabrielle’s future motherhood.
So there you have it, the off-putting gesture is just a symbol of maternity.
Hopefully this didn’t ruin the painting for you, I hope I didn’t make the painting
less intriguing and, therefore, less interesting.
While I was doing the research and writing about this painting, I really thought to myself:
“why is this painting famous?”
I mean, I saw it in a couple of art history books, alongside some of history’s most
influential art.
Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters only became widely known centuries after its
making and it probably achieved this status from a simple, yet, strange and shocking gesture.
Is this enough to make a painting famous?
Is this just some kind of art history click-bait?
Let me know what you think in the comments.
And as always I’d like to thank my patrons over on Patreon.
Your support really means a lot to me.
If you want to join them, check out Patreon.com/thecanvas
The Portrait of Gabrielle d'Estrées and Her Sister is strange, peculiar, intriguing, and
outright disturbing.The artist is anonymous, adding another layer of mystery to this painting.
But was is actually going on?
Why is one of the women in the bathtub pinching the other's nipple?
Find out why!
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