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Rosalba Carriera enters Versailles

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27/10/24 - Acquisition - Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon - It is a work that would have been a wonderful addition to the exhibition devoted to King Louis XV (see article), where the absence of pastel portraits of the monarch was deplored: one of them was awaiting its time in a Brittany château, but has just joined the French public collections, where it naturally has its rightful place. In this effigy, we can recognise the features of the ten-year-old sovereign who was immortalised during a documented posing session in June 1720 by Rosalba Carriera, the great Venetian pastelist so sought-after by the European elite.


1. Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757)
Portrait of Louis XV as a Child, 1720
Pastel on paper pasted on canvas - 41 x 32 cm
Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon
Photo: Christophe Fouin
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Although Rosalba Carriera’s stay in Paris is well known, as is her reception piece for the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in the Louvre, it was her portrait of Louis XV that impressed her contemporaries. Attested in several versions of varying dimensions, the effigy of the young monarch - as well as her already solid reputation - ensured the pastellist access to the prestigious assembly, but it would take another three centuries to enter Versailles. Well-known through the work of Xavier Salmon, who studied and enriched the collection, which was also overseen by Juliette Trey, the collection is now efficiently managed by Élisabeth Maisonnier, who pursues a dynamic acquisitions policy to which we return regularly. This beautiful Portrait of Louis XV as a Child (ill. 1) joins that of the Grande Mademoiselle, purchased in March (see [news item of 29/7/24]).


2. Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757)
Portrait of Louis XV at the Age of Ten 1720-1721
Pastel - 50.5 x 38.5 cm
Dresden, Old Masters Picture
Gallery
Photo: Dresden State Art Collections
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