The Château de Versailles announces a special display of its recently acquired pastel portrait of Louis XV by Rosalba Carriera. The work, purchased in July 2024, can now be seen in the former apartments of Madame de Maintenon.
"In July 2024, the portrait of Louis XV as a child by Rosalba Carriera was acquired thanks to the patronage of Hubert and Mireille Goldschmidt, through the American Friends of Versailles.
The famous Venetian portraitist Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757), commissioned by royal and aristocratic families across Europe, was invited to Paris by the financier, art lover, and patron Pierre Crozat. She stayed in his mansion between April 1720 and March 1721, forging several bonds with French artists, notably Antoine Coypel and Antoine Watteau. Her reputation and her talent drew a wide clientele, enchanted by her portraits that melded a faithful version of the model with an idealized one, realism with illusion. Her time in Paris, the details of which are recorded in her near-daily diary entries, culminated in the creation of a portrait of the young Louis XV.
Starting on 14 June 1720, the King agreed to sit for several sessions for the artist, prompting his tutor, the Marschall of Villeroi, to remark: “You must be pleased the king has such patience.” On 29 December, Rosalba Carriera recounts that she was “brought into the King’s private chamber to see where we could hang (his) pastel portrait, which just that day had been taken to the Palace in a grand frame and was first displayed in the room where the King played.” Presented to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture on 26 October 1720, this pastel painting earned the Venetian artist her reception in this institution the very same day.
Rosalba Carriera created other versions, in various sizes and with different media. Preserved in Dresden, the best-known version uses a more richly nuanced and perhaps more subtle palette. Softened contours and a slimmer face lend a less childlike aspect to the young man, while the rich orange reflections playing on the embroidery, the fleur-de-lys pattern on his coat, the presence of the blue riband and the cross of the Order of the Holy Spirit accentuate his royalty.
In this more intimate portrait acquired by Versailles, the sketch is still visible along the contour of the face. Rosalba Carriera displays her virtuoso pastel technique in the velvety texture of the skin, the brilliance and softness of the gaze, and the movement and lightness of the curls. Kept in a private collection for more than two centuries, it comes with a legend: during the Revolution, the royal symbols were erased, and the canvas hidden in a well!
This exceptional pastel completes the already rich series of effigies of the young Louis XV preserved in Versailles, in particular the portrait sculpted by Antoine Coysevox, which depicts him at the same age"
See:The portrait was acquired from the Château de Josselin, the seat of the dukes of Rohan. The Gazette Drouot seems to imply the circumstances were slightly odd - but I don't have the complete article.
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