Dressed in armor over a velvet jacket, white lace tie, he wears the blue ribbon of the Order of the Holy Spirit in a saltire. Powdered, wavy hair, tied at the back of the neck with a black knot. His illuminated face stands out against the background of a blue-gray sky dotted with light clouds.
Oil on canvas.
Dimensions: h. 38 cm cm, l. 30 cm
Carved and giltwoodframe with floral ecoincons, 18th century,
Framed dimensions: h. 50 cm, l. 43 cm
Circle of Jean-Baptiste van LOO (1684 - 1745), French School of first half of the 18th century, circa 1730
Our work is a mid-size version of a full-length portrait of Louis XV by Jean-Baptiste Van Loo, kept in Palace of Versailles (inv. MV6942, size 205 cm x 171 cm).
The portraits of the young king serving above all as a communication tool, the different bust or full-length variants are ordered in order to promote the image of the young monarch. Its revivals are painted by the collaborators of Jean-Baptiste Van Loo in his workshop, but also by the painters-copyists of the Cabinet des tableaux de la Superintendance des Batiments du Roi, directly employed by Louis XV. The appeal to copyists could be made by the king himself to offer his portrait or could be commissioned by nobles wishing to obtain the effigy of the sovereign.
Thus our portrait very probably was painted by an artist copyist of the Superintendence of the Buildings of the King.