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Claude-Louis-Hector, duc de Villars maréchal de France (3rd State), 1715
Etching and engraving after Hyacinthe Rigaud (Perpignan 1659 – 1743 Paris)
520 x 360 mm; 20 1/2 x 14 3/16 inches
Reference:
Firmin-Didot 123 III/IV
Notes:
A very fine impression of the 3rd State (of four), with the earlier set of letters.
Claude-Louis-Hector, the Duke of Villars and Maréchal de France (1653 – 1734) was born in Moulins. He was the most effective of Louis XIV’s military commanders in the War of the Spanish Succession. As a Maréchal, he won victories at Friedlingen (1702) and Höchstadt (1703). He commanded the French army in the Moselle in 1705-1706 where he stopped the Duke of Morborough from advancing into France and then also pacified the Cévennes region, which had been troubled by the religious struggles of the camisards. At Malplaquet, while resisting valiantly, the Duke de Villars was wounded (1709) but went on to save France at the battle of Denain in 1712. It was the Duke de Villars who himself then negotiated the Peace of Rastatt with Austria.
Drevet was one of the great French portrait engravers of his times. He was named Engraver for the King in 1696. Some of his most famous portrait engravings include Louis XIV, Standing in His Royal Mantle after Rigaud as well as this present work, also after Rigaud, of the Duke de Villars.
