The Abbé François Gaultier, 1712-15 (oil on canvas)

The Abbé François Gaultier (d.1723) A half-length portrait in oil with trompe l'oeil oval frame, painted as an abbe commendataire, with clerical bands and in a soutane, but without a tonsure, facing, his head turned slightly to the viewer's right. This is one of the remarkable group of French portraits at Sizergh that was given by James II's widow, Mary of Modena, to the widowed Winifred, Lady Strickland. Gaultier first came to the notice of the Queen in exile at Saint-Germain as third vicar of the parish church, a post he lost by overstaying his leave in Normandy. He then became a secret, and ultimately an open, agent in London of Louis XIV, who in 1712 rewarded him with the two royal abbeys of Savigny and Olivet.