Subject's links with Freemasonry

This portrait being sold by Sotheby's is estimated to sell for $22,000 when it goes under the hammer in New York on January 30th. The catalogue note explains what connection he has with Freemasonry.

Here it is: This charming and characteristic portrait was part of a series which Carmontelle drew during his time at the court of the Duc d'Orléans.  Carmontelle entered the service of Louis Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, in 1759 and enjoyed a buoyant career there, organizing official entertainments and later also becoming a garden designer, creating what is now the Parc Monceau.

Over the course of some 34 years, Carmontelle made more than 750 portraits of the Orléans family, their court, and other friends and acquaintances, which were bound in eleven albums.  The majority of the sitters were drawn full length and in profile, as here.  He drew the portraits mainly for himself and would only produce replicas on request.

At the end of his life, Carmontelle gave the names of all the sitters in his portraits to his great friend Richard de Lédans who compiled a manuscript list, now in the museum at Chantilly, where there are 570 portraits from the original group.  The albums remained intact until in the possession of Pierre de La Mésangère, who dismantled them and mounted each drawing on a green mount, like that on this lot.

Nowadays, the Duc de Piney-Luxembourg's main claim to fame is that he is considered to have been the founder of the Grand Orient de France, the country's principal Masonic lodge.