Laure-Augute de Fitz-James, Princess of Chimay

This 1767 portrait of Laure-Auguste de Fitz-James, Princess of Chimay, belongs to the same period as van Loo's portrait of the Duke of Choiseul, situating the painter firmly within the world of the French high aristocracy in the 1760s. The Princess of Chimay was a figure at the intersection of two illustrious lineages: the Fitz-James family descended from James II of England through his natural son, connecting French Catholic aristocracy to the Jacobite exile culture. Van Loo painted her with the refinement expected of a sitter of this pedigree, placing the work within his broader late-career output for French noble families. The Museum of the History of France at Versailles acquired the portrait, integrating it into the visual record of the ancien régime aristocracy that the museum was established to preserve. The portrait belongs to a tradition of French female aristocratic portraiture that celebrated rank, elegance, and social refinement as intertwined values.

The composition follows van Loo's mature female portrait formula: a slightly turned three-quarter pose, soft lighting on the face, and attention to the decorative qualities of fabric and jewellery. The brushwork in the costume is more varied than in his earlier court work, reflecting both artistic development and the different demands of French versus Spanish patronage.