Gabrielle d'Estrées and One of Her Sisters

In 1594 Henri IV, who had turned Catholic the year before, finally rode into Paris as king after years of religious war. Beside him was his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées, who that same year bore him a son, César. The Louvre describes this panel as an allegory of the birth of one of the king's children. Two women sit in a bath between red curtains. The one being pinched on the breast is traditionally Gabrielle, and her companion is a sister, either the duchesse de Villars or the maréchale de Balagny. That pinch has long been read as a sign of pregnancy. Gabrielle holds a ring between two fingers, and in the room behind them a woman sits sewing near a fire. The painter is unknown, one of the artists of the second School of Fontainebleau. She died in 1599, pregnant again, before the king could marry her.