Louis XV Portrait In The Taste Of Jb Van Loo

Portrait of Louis XV in the taste of Jean -Baptiste van Loo (1684 - 1745)

EXPERT Mr. RENE MILLET

Three inscriptions, label and Inventory number on the back of the frame

- 82 x 66.5 without frame Original canvas and frame -

Very good condition of the canvas Rococo frame with slight lack of gilding -

Large oil on canvas by Louis de Bourbon, King of France known as Louis XV, after Jean-Baptiste van Loo when he was 15 years old. -

Jean-Baptiste van Loo, born in Aix-en-Provence in 1684, and died in 1745, is a painter from a dynasty of artists from the Netherlands -

He executed many portraits for the Superintendence of Buildings of King, historical paintings and five ceilings -
He is the brother of Carle van Loo, his disciple - He had as a disciple Jean-Siméon Chardin.

Charles Parrocel chooses van Loo to make a portrait of Louis XV (just his face). Parrocel used this portrait for an equestrian portrait of the King.

Van Loo was in charge of a full-length portrait in armor of the King. It is the first official portrait of the King in full length in coronation costume. It is obvious that the face of 1723 was used for the composition.
It will be until 1729. The portrait is taken over by van Loo and his workshop - One of the replicas, by Van Loo, is kept in Versailles. Another commissioned for Cardinal de Polignac in Rome….

Our canvas has broad resemblances to that of Versailles. - Who is the author of this version of van Loo's painting? Van Loo and his workshop? Or a gifted copyist artist of the King's Buildings Superintendency?

Read on this subject the relevant writings of Claire Aubaret on the copyists of the cabinet des tableaux, they let us think that it is about a recovery by one of these copyists, that he was of the workshop of van Loo or that he was directly dependent on the office of copyists.

This order was most likely made and then deposited in a royal administration, at a wealthy individual, or offered to a relative of the royal family who requested a version.

Documentation: Claire Aubaret "The copyists of the Cabinet des tableaux of the Superintendence of the King's Buildings -

Bulletin of the Research Center of the Palace of Versailles [Online], Articles and studies, posted on December 18, 2013 -. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/crcv/12223