The Queen had this portrait made for the Marquise de Tourzel, Governess of the Children of France: it was almost destroyed at the time of the journey to Varennes and was resumed in 1792. On tenth August, it was taken from the apartment of Her Majesty and found two years later by the efforts of the marquis de Tourzel Grand prévôt de France. A precious souvenir of the goodness of the Queen, of whom it gives a perfect likeness, though damaged by all it has suffered. This portrait of the Queen received on 10th August two pike blows from the Revolutionaries.
Born in Warsaw in 1741, the son of a history painter and portraitist, Alexander-Albert Kucharski had followed his father into the artistic profession and been sent to Paris to study by King Stanislaw August Poniatowski, who awarded him a pension and placed him under the profection of his correspondent Madame Geoffrin. Kucharski won several prizes at the Académie royale de peinture and from 1762 frequented the ateliers of Vien and Van Loo. Contrary to the wishes of his patron who wished him to specialise in history painting, he became a portraitist, thereby freeing himself to remain in Paris and seek work in aristocratic circles. He joined the household of the prince de Condé at Chantilly and in 1776 was described as painter and drawing master to Louise Adélaïde, princesse de Bourbon-Condé. He was residing by this time in the rue de Grenelle in the fashionable Faubourg Saint-Germain. Though the princesse he would have had ample opportunity to meet the comtesse de Boufflers, the princesse de Polignac and other members of Marie-Antoinette's immediate entourage. He was subsequently employed the prince de Carignan and his sister, the princesse de Lamballe. Having produced portraits of Madame Élisabeth and the comte d'Artois, in 1789 he succeeded Elisabeth Vignée Le Brun as painter to the Queen herself. According to a note on the back of a portrait Kucharski painted the Marie-Antoinette for the first time in 1780. These first works were miniatures, probably not painted from life.
Kucharski's first major commission is believed to have been this official portrait in which Marie-Antoinette appears in a white satin gown with a high belt, a cloak with fleurs-de-lys and wearing a diadem in her hair. The picture dates from 1787 or 1788 and was intended as a pendant to a portrait of Louis XVI. It is documented as having belonged to the de Sabran family and in the early 20th century to the comtesse de Gondrecourt. It was later part of the Collection Alain Bancel, sold at auction (as a work by Callet) in 2003, with an estimate of only 8-10,000 euros.
According to the Le forum de Marie-Antoinette it was bought by M. René Monboisse the owner of the Château du Cambon in the Auvergne.
Various versions and copies are recorded. "Le forum de Marie Antoinette" includes a plate from Marguerite Jallut's Marie-Antoinette et ses peintres (1955) which looks like a different version, but I wonder if it is in fact the same picture, pre-restoration?
According to Olivier Blanc, a version from the same year shows the Queen in a turban, with a rounded neckline and medallion with interlaced M and A. This painting belonged to Louis XVIII and is apparently reproduced in Castellot Marie-Antoinette (1967, p.133). See. Blanc, p.169.
Blanc mentions a second version in oils, from the collection of Hector de Béarn, great-grandson of Madame de Tourzel, who was given the work by the Duchess of Angoulême .
Watercolour sold by Christie's in Paris on 21st November 2007.
This picture was sold by Christie's in November 2015. Lot 82 in the high-profile "Collection Marie-Antoinette" sale,it fetched EUR 3,750. It is evidently the portrait reproduced in the Ian Dunlop biography (or a close copy)- it is painted on ivory and, at 20.5 cms in high, is classed as a miniature.