Shortly after 175 years since the novel “Three Musketeers” was completed and published in the journal “Historical Algorithms”. Luxuriously published book illustrated with engravings by the best artists of France, and its triumphant campaign has begun by countries of the world

A rally of history and adventure that enchants and confuses …
And let Alexandre Dumas deal with historical facts quite freely, thanks to him a huge number of people from childhood known names of Louis XIV, d’Artagnan and Athos, Richelieu, Mazarin and Colbert … Jean Batiste Colbert – a French statesman, the actual chairman of the Louis XIV government, is interested in history lovers. Still! The Academy of Inscriptions and Sophisticated Literature (1663), the Royal Academy of Sciences (1666), the Royal Academy of Music (1669), the Royal Academy of Architecture (1671) were founded with its participation. Colbert created the French military and civilian fleets, as the Minister of Finance contributed to the development of trade and industry, founded the state’s economic foundations. According to historians, the nobleman was cruel and stubborn in achieving his goal, strict and unpretentious in everyday life, but his rule was to ease the tax obligations of the poor at the expense of the wealthy. Of course, such a well-known historical person has attracted the interest of contemporaries, and, in particular, artists. The all-powerful minister, the trustee of King Louis XIV, had admirers of outstanding artists who did not spare either time or effort to leave the descendants of his true, perfect and externally similar image.  And hence, over time, a large number of portraits of a ruler of title, recognized in the royal courts by the artists were written. These were Pierre Mignard, Charles Lebren, Claude Lefebvre and others. The paintings by Colbert, created by these artists, are proud of the best museums of the world, and the Zhytomyr Museum of Local Lore also has a portrait of an outstanding figure in its exposition. The so-called “grand” is exhibited in Versailles – the royal palace, the portrait of Pierre Mignard’s work – in the Hermitage. Colbert portraits and other talented painters were written, they were bought by fans of the statesman, painters and museums. Patriotic-minded French preferred to have the image of Colbert in their palaces and estates, some simply decorated them with the interiors of their homes, having a desire for beauty. It is hard to say what kind of feelings guided members of the famous family of Barons de Chodair in Zhytomyr, but they also replenished their collection with a portrait of a noble man of noble appearance. It happened in about 1817-1820, when Stanislaw de Shodair traveled around Europe, communicated with collectors, visited salons and workshops of artists and antique auctions, enriched his collection of artistic works. From that time begins the ancient history of the painting, which is an ornament of the artistic department of the Zhytomyr Museum. A separate component of this story is that for over 200 years art historians have not come to an agreement and are trying to answer the question of who is the author of a portrait. The artistic value and talent of the master are beyond doubt – this is an outstanding portrait artist! But who is he?
The picture arrived in the museum in 1919 from the palace of the last representative of de Chodair – Ivan Maximilianoyich and was added to the catalog as “Portrait of the Unknown Court, the time of Louis XIV”.
In the book “The artistic collection of barons de Chodair in the Zhytomyr Museum,” Lidia Dakhnenko, art historian, says: “By forming his art gallery, S. Chodair was guided by his own tastes and preferences. The painting that he collected was intended primarily to decorate the interiors of his home, to create the atmosphere of an aristocratic-intellectual intellectual house … Somewhat he bought works that were valuable to him as an addition to his scientific collections of autographs, numismatics and sphygrostics. He tried to create an illustrated history of various states, peoples and famous people”. Perhaps this explains the fact that in the catalog of the private museum of de Chodair the picture is presented as “Portrait of Pierre Cornel” (?) By artist Philippe de Champagne. (note author: Pierre Cornel – playwright, creator of classicism in French literature, “the father of French drama”). In the 1920s Dmitry Antonov, the initiator and organizer of the painting gallery of the Zhytomyr Museum, drew attention to the picture. Scrupulously studying the subject, including by comparison, he concludes: the man depicted in the portrait – Jean Batiste Colbert. The author is Claude Lefebvre, a court painter, a student of the famous Charles Lebren. There are analogues in the portrait: “The main portrait of Zh.B. Colbert “in Versailles,” Portrait of JB Colbert “by C. Lefebvre in one of the best art museums in France, in the city of Po.
Dmitry Antonov, an artist and teacher, even before the Bolshevik coup of 1917 studied in Paris, a private art school member of the Academy of Fountains Fernando Kormona. His students also were: Toulouse Lautrec, van Gogh, Nicholas Roerich. (for example, the author: by the way, in Zhytomyr Antonov for some time lived in one house with Alexander Dovzhenko, had friendly relations with him, taught to draw).
About the picture of Lefebvre, he writes: “It’s hard to talk about painting this portrait, when this painting on it almost disappears and we are looking at the canvas of a completely alive person … Artwork is then perfect, when disappears should be any effort spent on him”. In 1969 Iryna Lynnyk came to the invitation of the museum to Zhytomyr – a professor, the main scholar of the Hermitage, the best paintings of Rembrandt and Frans Gals. Among the achievements I. Linnik is the definition of more than 300 previously unknown paintings in museums in Europe, including in Ukraine. Scientists of prestigious museums such as the Louvre, the Prado, the Vatican Museums, etc., recognized the authority of experts in the field of Western European art.
After a detailed analysis, she concluded: depicted Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and the likely author is close to King Louis XIV Charles Le Brun. He was given the privilege to paint portraits of members of the royal family and the first persons of the state. So the high rating of the picture was confirmed, but the authorship was changed. This conclusion was obviously influenced by the fact that Claude Lefebvre was a student of Lebren, and their manner of writing, technique, color palette are surprisingly similar. Today, the portrait of J.B. Kolber is in the exhibition of Zhytomyr Museum, its author is Claude Lefebvre (?), But the museum experts have the assumption that the picture could be created by Roland Lefebvre (?) (1608-1677rr), a member of the Parisian Academy of Arts, which at one time recognized as an unsurpassed portraitist. Again, as before, a question mark on an annotation plate indicates an uncertainty in the definition of an author.
Like this! The search for the truth is possible in the future, and the researchers have to say the last word.
And the supporters of the painting hospitably awaits Zhytomyr Museum, where the paintings of the best artists of Europe are exhibited, with which there are many inspiring stories …
Sergey Sobchuk
Member of the National Union of Local History of Ukraine
Anna Sobchuk, co-author
Translated by Aliona Matushevich