Oil on canvas, oval 74cm by 61cm. A pair to PIC542.
In 1949, following correspondence between Myra, 5th Marchioness of Exeter and Sir Henry Hake, then Director of the National Portrait Gallery (My/P/95), the portrait was identified as being that of Louis XV’s eldest son, the Dauphin.
The portrait shows marked similarities to portraits of him in the NPG’s collection.
The Dauphin predeceased his father, and it was his son who became the ill-fated Louis XVI on his grandfather’s death in 1774.
