ANCIENT PORTRAIT FROM THE 1700s OF LOUIS XIV, THE SUN KING. Workshop of Hyacinthe Rigaud.

Workshop of Hyacinthe Rigaud. OIL ON CANVAS Dimensions 155 x 120 cm Provenance: Huppy Castle Collection (France) PRESENTATION OF THE WORK Portrait set against the backdrop of what is presumably a battlefield, the French monarch Louis XIV poses in a three-quarter figure, proud and full of himself, sporting a gleaming burnished armor. In the eighteenth century, military garments turned into true parade uniforms, which are in no way inferior to the most elegant court costumes. Very refined, colorful details decorate the armor: the two winged breastplates and white gloves have slits at the wrists, and a lace jabot is knotted at the neck. The gleaming armor studded with decorated fleur-de-lis and the equally lustrous helmet give him a militaristic bearing. The rhetoric of royal power shines through strongly in the portrait: the blue ribbon that circles his chest is a tribute to the Order of Saint-Esprit to which the sovereign belongs, the golden lilies engraved on the elbows are the heraldic symbol of the Bourbons, and the right hand holds a command baton and rests on a discarded helmet. The enormous royal wig ("the most baroque expression of the baroque"). On the back, a black ribbon softly ties the curls that descend along the back. To give such prominence to the wig, the hairdressers of Versailles impose complete shaving of the cheeks and face. The refined pictorial quality in the attention to detail places this painting in the workshop of the famous court portrait painter Hyacinthe Rigaud. Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) or the Sun King (le Roi Soleil), was King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country in history. Louis XIV's France was emblematic of the age of absolutism in Europe. The king surrounded himself with a variety of significant political, military, and cultural figures, such as Mazarin, Colbert, Louvois, the Grand Condé, Turenne, Vauban, Boulle, Molière, Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, Lully, Charpentier, Marais, Le Brun, Rigaud, Bossuet, Le Vau, Mansart, Charles Perrault, Claude Perrault and Le Nôtre. During Louis' long reign, France emerged as the leading European power and regularly asserted its military strength. A conflict with Spain marked his entire childhood, while during his reign the kingdom took part in three major continental conflicts, each against powerful foreign alliances: the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession. Additionally, France also contested shorter wars, such as the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions. War defined Louis' foreign policy, and his personality shaped his approach. Driven by "a mix of commerce, revenge, and resentment," he felt that war was the ideal way to increase his glory. In peacetime, he focused on preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats that their job was to create tactical and strategic advantages for the French army. At his death in 1715, Louis XIV left his great-grandson and successor, Louis XV, a powerful kingdom, although heavily indebted after the 13-year War of the Spanish Succession. Hyacinthe Rigaud (18 July 1659, Perpignan, France – 29 December 1743, Paris, France) He was one of the most important portrait painters during the reign of King Louis XIV. His instinct for impressive poses and grand presentations perfectly suited the tastes of the royal figures, ambassadors, clerics, courtiers, and financiers who sat for him. Rigaud owes his fame to the faithful support he received from the four generations of Bourbons whose portraits he painted; namely, King Louis XIV, then his son Louis, Grand Dauphin, then the king's grandson (son of the Grand Dauphin) Louis, Duke of Burgundy (also called Petit Dauphin), and finally the Grand Dauphin's grandson (son of the Petit Dauphin), who became the next king: Louis XV, who succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV in 1715. He gathered the core of his clientele from the wealthiest circles as well as from bourgeois, financiers, nobles, industrialists, and government ministers, also courting all the major ambassadors of his time and several European monarchs. His work reads like an almost complete portrait gallery of the main promoters in France from 1680 to 1740. THE WORK WILL BE SHIPPED INSIDE A WOODEN CRATE AND WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY A CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY