Rosalba Carriera’s Portrait of Louis XV as a Child Joins the Collections at the Château de Versailles

La Gazette Drouot
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One of the institution’s latest acquisitions is a portrait of the young Louis XV by the ‘Venetian Queen’ of pastels, Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757). This La Gazette exclusive bears witness to an active acquisition policy in the graphic arts.

Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757), Portrait de Louis XV enfant (Portrait of Louis XV as a Child), 1720, pastel on paper pasted on linen canvas.
© Château de Versailles / Christophe Fouin
Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757), Portrait de Louis XV enfant (Portrait of Louis XV as a Child), 1720, pastel on paper pasted on linen canvas.
© Château de Versailles / Christophe Fouin

Until a few months ago, visitors to an extraordinary château, owned by a family that did a great deal for Versailles, could admire an impressive pastel by Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757), the “Queen of Venice”. But to preserve France’s châteaux, jewels of the nation’s cultural heritage, it is sometimes necessary to step aside… The transfer of the portrait of the young Louis XV is one such case. Élisabeth Maisonnier, curator in charge of the Graphic Arts Department at the Château de Versailles, is amused by another sideways step: the portrait of the 10-year-old Louis XV, the only King of France to be born and die at Versailles, is not part of the château’s collection! And with good reason: Louis XIV‘s great-grandson, orphaned at the age of two, left Versailles when he became king at the age of five. The Regent chose to raise the young sovereign in Paris, where the virtuoso Antoine Watteau was breaking artistic conventions. Four years later, on September 20, 1719, art lover Pierre Crozat wrote to Rosalba Carriera: “We have here many appreciators who infinitely esteem your talent… An excellent man, M. Watteau, of whom you will no doubt have heard, has the greatest desire to meet you, and to have a small work by your hand, in exchange he would send you one of his, or, if he could not, the equivalent… He is my friend, he lives with me, he begs me to present his most humble respects and desires a favorable response.” In April 1720, the Venetian artist arrived in Paris, where she became the muse of the city. In the diary she kept, whose 1865 editions­—in Italian and French—are still referenced, Rosalba mentions as early as the following June 14: “I began the small portrait of the king”. This was followed by nine portraits of the royal child, in various sizes and media. One of these versions led to Rosalba’s admission to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture) on October 26, 1720.

An Exceptional Provenance

In 1865, art historian Alfred Sensier lamented the fact that he knew so little about Rosalba’s artistic production in Paris: “The French Revolution undoubtedly contributed to their dispersal; the property of princes, nobles or émigrés, it was lost in the great shipwreck of eighteenth-century society. Especially regrettable are the portraits of Louis XV as a child; that of the Law, which appears at Versailles only as an unfaithful copy; that of Watteau, and especially those of the two Crozats, the true mécènes (patrons) of that time, whose features are now completely forgotten; that of the interesting Comtesse d’Évreux and the lionesses of the Regency, Mmes d’Alincourt, de Parabère, de Prie, and perhaps that of the Regent.” One hundred and fifty-nine years later, Xavier F. Salomon, the brilliant Chief Curator of the Frick Collection who is working on the artist’s catalog raisonné, makes a slightly more positive assessment. But fewer than five of Rosalba’s Parisian pastels are known to exist: he considers that the “Portrait of Louis XV as a Child” in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden was executed at a later date. The pastel that made its debut at Versailles, where the king’s features are more youthful, could even be the very first version painted by the artist. Élisabeth Maisonnier points out: “Despite the fact that the posing session was so brief, Rosalba perfectly rendered the velvety, nuanced skin tone, the radiance of the eyes, the movement and lightness of the curls… The underlying drawing is still perceptible in the treatment of the facial contour. A few elements indicate an unfinished version: shorter hair, curls sketched on the shoulders and, in the background, a sober blue suit. The use of a thicker wet paste for the face, followed by the application of a more powdery dry pastel enhanced by a few strokes of color, gives a very painterly finish.” The nugget in question is all the more exceptional in that its provenance has been traced back to the 18th century. The Portrait de Louis XV enfant belonged to one of the king’s closest friends, the Duc Louis-César de La Baume Le Blanc de La Vallière. This grand-nephew of the Duchesse de La Vallière, Grand Falconer of France and close friend of the Marquise de Pompadour, was for some “one of the most corrupt lords of the old court, friend of the late king and devoted to all his mistresses” (Bachaumont), and for others one of the most eminent bibliophiles of his time. The pastel then passed into the collections of the famous amateur Gilbert Paignon-Dijonval. From his grandson, the astonishing Charles-Gilbert, vicomte Morel de Vindé, the pastel then passed into the hands of the latter’s daughter, Claire Morel de Vindé. Claire married the grand-nephew of Abbé Terray, Louis XV’s last Controller General of Finances.

Rituel de l’abbaye royale de S. Germain des Prez les Paris, Contenant les priéres & cérémonies à faire, lorsque les Religieux de la d’Abbaye portent les Reliques de la glorieuse Vierge & Martyre S. Marguerite aux Reynes & Princesses du sang, (The Ritual of the Royal Abbey of S. Germain des Prez in Paris, Containing the prayers & ceremonies to be performed, when the Religious of the Abbey carry the Relics of the Glorious Virgin & Martyr S. Marguerite to the Reynes & Princesses of the Blood. Marguerite to the Queens & Princesses of the Blood), 17th century, illuminated manuscript.
© Château de Versailles

From Simon Vouet to Maria Theresa of Austria

Two years after the major exhibition “Louis XV, passions d’un roi” (Louis XV, Passions of a King), where it was not shown, the entry of the Portrait of Louis XV as a Child into the Versailles collections makes sense. And it was not difficult for Christophe Leribault, the new President of the Château de Versailles, to convince the patron couple Hubert and Mireille Goldschmidt to support this acquisition project: “Their passion for drawing is something they also like to share. They are happy to lend to exhibitions and, with their well-known enthusiasm, have helped countless projects concerning French drawing both in New York and Paris, from the Metropolitan Museum to the Frick Collection, from the Decorative Arts to the Musée d’Orsay, where they supported the recent exhibition “Pastels, de Millet à Redon” [2023, editor’s note]. At Versailles, they took the plunge and, sharing my love at first sight for this pastel by Rosalba Carriera, understood its importance for French cultural heritage.” The acquisition policy pursued by the teams of Laurent Salomé, Director of the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et Trianon, is attracting particular attention. Last spring also saw the arrival of Simon Vouet in the Graphic Arts Department. The fantastic pastel depicting the Grande Mademoiselle Enfant, presented by Nicolas Schwed at last year’s Semaine du Dessin (Drawing Week), was purchased in the process. And in keeping with the theme of royal childhood, one of the château’s most spectacular acquisitions is a manuscript given to Maria Theresa of Austria, Rituel de l’abbaye royale de S. Germain des Prez les Paris, Contenant les priéres & cérémonies à faire, lorsque les Religieux de [l’]Abbaye portent les Reliques de la glorieuse Vierge & Martyre S. Marguerite aux Reynes & Princesses du sang. Calligraphied by Nicolas Jarry in the 17th century, this illuminated manuscript details the prayers to Saint Marguerite of Antioch to accompany royal pregnancies. The Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés kept a belt of the saint, which was applied to the queen’s belly shortly before full term, while prayers were recited to encourage childbirth. The manuscript will be one of the centerpieces of the forthcoming exhibition dedicated to the Grand Dauphin.

Worth Knowing
Exhibition: “Le Grand Dauphin (1661-1711)” at the Château de Versailles.
From October 14, 2025 to February 15, 2026
chateauversailles.fr

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