Mistress of King Henry IV of France
Gabrielle d’Estrées, mistress of King Henry IV of France and quotes by different artistes The painting Gabrielle d’Estrées et une de ses soeurs by an unknown artist (c.1594), is of Gabrielle d’Estrées, mistress of King Henry IV of France, sitting up nude in a bath, holding (assumedly) Henry’s coronation ring, whilst her sister sits nude beside her and pinches her right nipple. Henry gave Gabrielle the ring as a token of his love shortly before she died. The painting is a symbolic announcement anticipating the birth of Gabrielle’s first child with Henry IV, César de Bourbon. Her maternity is expressed in three ways: her sister pinches the source of the new mother’s milk, the servant in the background knits in…