Marc Duval

(b Le Mans, c. 1545; d Paris, 13 Sept 1581). French engraver and painter. He was the son of the painter and sculptor Bertin Duval ( fl 1519-62). Although contemporary sources, including the Biblioth?que ... (Paris, 1584) by Fran?ois Grud?, Sieur de La Croix du Maine (1552-92), indicate that Marc Duval was active as a portrait painter at the courts of Charles IX and Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV), no authenticated painted work by him is known to survive. Dimier (1942) suggested that the 13 portraits he initially (1924-6) grouped under the name of the Master of Luxembourg-Martigues should be attributed to Duval. These works include Charlotte de Roye, Comtesse de La Rochefoucauld (c. 1555; Paris, Louvre). If this identification is correct, it would make Duval one of the most important French portrait painters in the generation after Fran?ois Clouet.

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