When Colbert was supplanted by Louvois another painter came to the front in the person of Mignard, also a pupil of Vouet. He studied in Rome, where he copied a number of paintings in the Farnese Gallery for the Cardinal of Lyons, Richelieu's brother. He married the beautiful Anna Avolara, daughter of a Roman architect and model for his _Madonnas_, for which there was a great demand. No sooner had he acquired a certain amount of fame than the King of France commanded him to return home. On the way, however, he fell ill, and had to stop at Avignon. Here he first became acquainted with Molière; and the portrait which he painted of this great poet is beyond doubt his _chef d'oeuvre_.[133] It occupies a prominent position in the Tribune at Chantilly, where it commands much attention and admiration. The great esteem in which the author of _Tartuffe_ was held by the Grand Condé is well known and it is by a singular piece of good fortune that the best of all the existing portraits of Molière should have found its way into the Musée Condé. If Mignard--and not without reason--is sometimes accused of superficiality, this complaint must surely be modified by the evidence of this portrait, which displays an artist of very considerable power. There is at Chantilly another portrait by Mignard of special interest. It is that of _Madame Henriette d'Angleterre_, the beautiful and ill-fated daughter of Charles I, first wife of Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, the King's brother. He also repeatedly painted likenesses of the young King himself, including one sent to Spain to be shown to his intended bride the Infanta Marie Thérèse. At a maturer age Louis XIV was painted by Rigaud, a pupil of Le Brun. The portrait of him at Chantilly (Cabinet Clouet) is a smaller replica, signed by the painter himself, of the larger work executed in 1701 for his son, Philip V of Spain--a painting which was, however, kept back at Versailles and is now in the Louvre. Hyacinthe Rigaud was considered a great portrait-painter and many personages of note gave him commissions. There is also a fine portrait at Chantilly by his younger contemporary and follower, Largillière, of _Mademoiselle Duclos_, a celebrated _tragédienne_ who made her _début_ at the Comédie Française in 1683. She is here portrayed in the rôle of _Ariane_ (Salle Caroline), and her sumptuous robes are painted with all the care and minuteness so characteristic of this artist. These qualities are again displayed in a portrait of the _Princess Palatine, Charlotte Elizabeth_, second wife of Philippe d'Orléans and mother of the Regent. In this portrait Largillière shows his highest talents, and had it not been for the fact that "Liselotte" (although already middle-aged) followed the taste of her time by permitting herself to be painted as a Naiad this would perhaps have been one of the most faithful likenesses of this interesting princess. [Illustration: PLATE LXXIII. LOUISE-HENRIETTE DE BOURBON CONTI. _Photo Braun & Co._