François de Troy

With Didier Aaron, New York and Paris;
From whom acquired by the present collector.

D. Brême, François de Troy, Paris 1997, p. 44, reproduced in color.

Canvas has an old relining. Overall the painting presents a strong image and is in generally healthy condition. The paint has thinned somewhat in the background above the sitter, but the figure itself has retained most detailing and coloration, especially in the face where subtle flesh tones are discernable. UV light reveals a couple isolated areas of retouches, including a larger area above the arm, and in the right part of the background, as well as in a portion of the coat, and along the right edge of the canvas. The retouches appear to have been applied well, and the painting could be hung in its current state. In a carved gilt wood frame.
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Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse (6 June 1678 – 1 December 1737), was the third son and youngest child of Louis XIV and of his mistress, Madame de Montespan. At the age of five, around the same moment this portrait was executed by de Troy, he became Grand Admiral de France (Grand Admiral of France). Shown here gesturing towards a group of ships, the picture would appear to fortell his later military success as we would eventually take full control of the French navy under his father.

A slightly modified version of larger dimensions is recorded by Brême as dating to the same moment as the present work, 1683, and is located in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Agen.¹

1. see Literature, Brême 1997, p. 42.