Portrait of Louis XIV - Henri Testelin the younger (1616-1695) and workshop

Henri Testelin the younger (1616-1695) and workshop-Portrait of Louis XIV

Canvas mounted on panel measuring 81.5 cm by 65.5 cm.
Beautiful old frame measuring 96 cm by 80 cm

Beautiful portrait of Louis XIV around 1680, 1690 which can be attributed to the workshop of Louis Testelin the younger. We know of a few workshop replicas of this portrait, including one in the Louvre collections under inventory number 9347; B 2075. This replica, on deposit at the Château de Fontainebleau, smaller and reduced to the feigned oval, is embedded with other paintings in a set. (https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010057702)

Henri Testelin (1616-1695)

He is the son of Gilles Testelin, painter to Louis XIII and the brother of Louis Testelin, also a painter. A student of Simon Vouet, he participated in the founding in 1648 of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. On this occasion, he gave as a reception piece a portrait of a young Louis XIV which can still be admired at Versailles today. He became secretary then professor at the Academy only to be excluded as a Protestant (time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes). He exhibited at the salon of 1673 a portrait of the King and Queen. His role was decisive in the development of the official doctrine of the arts, until his exclusion in 1681. With a great sense of pageantry he painted numerous court portraits and participated in the creation of the decorations of Versailles. A large part of his work known to date is in Versailles.