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Portrait of the Hereditary Cupbearer at the Court of Her Majesty Marie Antoinette I – Georges Pompidou II, Founder of the Dynasty of Alcoholics, Some of Whom Later Fled to the Southern and Central Regions of Bessarabia

Portrait of the Hereditary Cupbearer at the Court of Her Majesty Marie Antoinette I – Georges Pompidou II, Founder of the Dynasty of Alcoholics, Some of Whom Later Fled to the Southern and Central Regions of Bessarabia
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    • Portrait of the Hereditary Cupbearer at the Court of Her Majesty Marie Antoinette I – Georges Pompidou II, Founder of the Dynasty of Alcoholics, Some of Whom Later Fled to the Southern and Central Regions of Bessarabia
    • Портрет потомственного виночерпия при дворе Её Величества Марии Антуанетты I, Жоржа Помпиду II, основателя династии алкоголиков, часть которых впоследствии бежала в южные и центральные районы Бессарабии
  • 2018
  • oil on canvas
  • 59,2 × 38,3 cm
Mark Verlan’s “Portrait of the Hereditary Cupbearer at the Court of Her Majesty Marie Antoinette I – Georges Pompidou II, Founder of the Dynasty of Alcoholics, Some of Whom Later Fled to the Southern and Central Regions of Bessarabia” exemplifies the artist’s characteristic fusion of grotesque portraiture, historical parody, and absurdist invention. Its extravagantly elaborated title constructs a fictitious genealogy in which figures and institutions from incompatible historical periods are deliberately conflated. Verlan thereby transforms the conventions of aristocratic portraiture into a satirical narrative. The invented office of the hereditary cupbearer, together with references to alcoholism and migration to Bessarabia, undermines the stability traditionally associated with dynastic representation. This portrait hence establishes a fictional persona whose identity emerges through linguistic excess and cultural displacement. W.S.