Frans POURBUS le jeune (1569-1622), atelier d... Lot n° 2

Portrait of the young king Louis XIII in mourning costume. Oil on canvas, circa 1611-1612. This full-length portrait of Louis XIII, aged ten, in mourning costume shortly after the assassination of his father Henri IV, is one of his first dynastic representations as King of France and Navarre. In its gilded wood frame of the period. Folding, restorations. H. 137,7 x W. 96,5 cm. History "At ten o'clock the King left the Louvre dressed in purple scarlet mourning, wearing a taffeta hat of the same color, riding a small white haquenée, similarly covered in scarlet, preceded by the Swiss of his Guard" [Pierre Boitel, Chronique (...), 1624]. This portrait of the very young king, still a child, echoes that of his father, painted a year earlier by the same Pourbus, who was already highly regarded at the French court. The artist adopts the same posture for Louis XIII, placing his model next to a table covered with heavy gold embroidered velvet, a large emerald green drapery covering the background from which a column emerges in the corner, the marble floor accentuating the depth of the palatial room. Although Louis XIII was still a minor, the painter wanted to convey a royal image of his model, magnified by the sumptuousness of his costume bearing the grand cordon of the Order of the Holy Spirit; the richness of the jewels, the elements of the decorations and in particular the crowned figure "L", recall the royal functions of the child. It was Queen Marie de Medici, as Regent Mother, who called upon the painter Franz Pourbus to paint this portrait of Louis XIII, along with that of his sister Henriette de France. Jean Héroard, doctor to the royal family, provides us in his memoirs, a fairly accurate dating of the genesis of the work, when he reports the passage of Pourbus on February 11, 1611: "At three o'clock in the morning (...) Frédéric Pourbus flammand peinctre excellent, the [Louis XIII] pulls him from his height while he plays at small besoignes. It seems that the work was intended to be offered as a diplomatic gift and the orders for several replicas from Pourbus' workshop entered as early as 1612 in the framework of the marriage policy envisaged by the Regent. The correspondence maintained by Matteo Botti, the Tuscan ambassador to the French Court, corroborates this hypothesis by mentioning several portraits sent to the great Tuscan families as well as to the Spanish Court. Related works - Frans Pourbus, Portrait of Louis XIII, 1611. 153.3 x 95.3 cm. Signed and dated with mention brought back from Rome by J.W. Bridgstocke of Carmarthen. So-called autograph version. Coll. Josiah Wedgwood (1795-1800) then Vaughan-Williams family (1834-1875); Sothebys Paris, June 27, 2002; Weiss Galery, London; Cleveland Museum of Art. - Workshop of Frans Pourbus, Portrait of Louis XIII, 1611. 180 x 90 cm. Sent by the Marquis Botti to Christine de Lorraine (wife of Ferdinand I de' Medici (1549-1609); coll. Como II de' Medici (1590-1621); Vasari Corridor (1890); Uffizi Gallery (1900); Pitti Palace Apartments. - Workshop of Frans Pourbus, Portrait of Louis XIII, c. 1611. 196 x 109 cm. Inscription on the canvas "Louis Dauphin de France". Drouot sale, December 7, 1981; private collection. - Workshop of Frans Pourbus, Portrait of Louis XIII. Former collection of Princess Mathilde, sale of May 17, 1904 (at the Georges Petit gallery, expert Jules Féral); private collection. The princess still owned three portraits painted by Pourbus: (...) n°14, portrait of Marie de Médicis; n°15, portrait of Louis XIII; n°16, portrait of Anne of Austria; n°17, presumed portrait of Elisabeth of France, daughter of Henri IV. Literature - Charles Maumené, Louis d'Harcourt, Iconography of the Kings of France. Part 1, from Louis IX to Louis XIII. Paris, 1929, pp. 248 and following. - Mina Gregori, Le musée des Offices et le Palais Pitti (...). Paris, 2000, p. 685. - Blaise Ducos, Frans Pourbus the young. 1569-1622. Le portrait d'apparat à l'aube du Grand Siècle (...). Ed. Faton, 2011. Ref. PA50, PB8, PB15. - From Merchants to Monarchs: Frans Pourbus the Younger. London, Weiss Galery, 2015, pp. 56-57.