Gabrielle d'Estrées and One of Her Sisters

This intriguing double portrait, attributed to the School of Fontainebleau, depicts Gabrielle d'Estrées, the celebrated mistress of King Henri IV of France, sitting in a bath alongside her sister, the Duchess of Villars. In the painting's most iconic gesture, the sister pinches Gabrielle's nipple—a gesture widely interpreted as an allusion to Gabrielle's pregnancy with the king's illegitimate son, César de Vendôme.

In the background, a woman is seen sewing what appears to be a baby's layette, reinforcing the pregnancy interpretation. The painting exemplifies the sophisticated, enigmatic, and often erotically charged style of the School of Fontainebleau, a French Mannerist movement that flourished under royal patronage in the 16th century.

The painting was acquired by the Louvre in 1937 and has become one of the museum's most popular and frequently reproduced works due to its unusual and provocative subject matter. It offers a fascinating window into the codes and conventions of aristocratic portraiture in late Renaissance France.