Workshop Of Henri Testelin Le Jeune (1616-1695). Portrait Of Louis XIV

Workshop of Henri Testelin the Younger (1616-1695). Portrait of Louis XIV

Canvas mounted on panel measuring 81.5 cm by 65.5 cm.
Very beautiful old frame measuring 107 cm by 90 cm

Beautiful portrait of Louis XIV around 1680, 1690 in a very beautiful frame that can be attributed to the workshop of Louis Testelin the Younger. We know of a few workshop replicas of this portrait, including one in the collections of the Louvre under inventory number 9347; B 2075. This replica, on deposit at the Château de Fontainebleau, smaller and reduced to the feigned oval, is set with other canvases in a set. (https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010057702)

Henri Testelin (1616-1695)

He is the son of Gilles Testelin, painter of Louis XIII and the brother of Louis Testelin, also a painter. A pupil of Simon Vouet, he participated in the founding in 1648 of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. On this occasion, he gave as a reception piece a portrait of the young Louis XIV that can still be admired at Versailles today. He became secretary then professor of the Academy before being excluded as a Protestant (time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes). He exhibited at the Salon of 1673 a portrait of the King and Queen. His role was decisive in the development of the official doctrine of the arts, until his exclusion in 1681. With a great sense of pageantry, he painted numerous court portraits and participated in the creation of the decorations of Versailles. Much of his work known to date is in Versailles.