The Weiss Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Selected Inventory
  • CATEGORIES
  • Fairs
  • News & Press
  • Publications
  • Video
  • About
  • Contact
  • Join our mailing list
Cart
0 items £
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu
  • Menu
Louis XIII of France (1601 – 1643)

Selected Inventory

  • All
  • 16th Century
  • 17th Century
  • Dutch
  • Our current stock of portraits depicting a range of sitters from Tudor Royals to English-Levantine Merchants
  • Flemish
  • French
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Frans Pourbus the Younger (1569 – 1622), Louis XIII of France (1601 – 1643), Painted circa 1620 – 1621

Frans Pourbus the Younger (1569 – 1622)

Louis XIII of France (1601 – 1643), Painted circa 1620 – 1621
Oil on de-lined canvas
27 × 21 ½ in. (68.5 × 54.5 cm.)
Copyright: The Weiss Gallery, London
Enquire about this work
%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22artist%22%3EFrans%20Pourbus%20the%20Younger%20%281569%20%E2%80%93%201622%29%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22title_and_year%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_title%22%3ELouis%20XIII%20of%20France%20%281601%20%E2%80%93%201643%29%3C/span%3E%2C%20%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_year%22%3EPainted%20circa%201620%20%E2%80%93%201621%3C/span%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22medium%22%3EOil%20on%20de-lined%20canvas%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22dimensions%22%3E27%20%C3%97%2021%20%C2%BD%20in.%20%2868.5%20%C3%97%2054.5%20cm.%29%3C/div%3E
This is the last known portrait by Pourbus of Louis XIII, and indeed likely one of the very last portraits that the artist painted before his death in 1622. It depicts the king aged about 19 - 20 years old, no longer a child, but a young man at a pivotal moment in his life – having assumed full regal power, and emerging from the control of his mother, Marie de’ Medici.
Read more

Provenance

(Possibly) given to Pedro Nuñez Girón y Velasco Guzmán y Tovar, Duke of Osuna (1574 - 1624) whilst he was in Italy, then sent to Spain; by descent in the collection of the Dukes of Infantado;

(Probably) Joaquín Arteaga y Echague (1870 - 1947), 17th Duke of Infantado;

to his daughter

Doña Teresa de Arteaga, Countess of the Andes; to her son

Don Iñigo Moreno y Arteaga, Marqués of Laula;

Private collection, Spain;

With The Weiss Gallery, London; acquired by

Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani, Hôtel Lambert, Paris.

Literature

Blaise Ducos, Frans Pourbus le Jeune 1569 – 1622. Dijon 2011, pp.135 & 277, no.P.A.103, also reproduced p.134, with incorrect provenance.

The Weiss Gallery, The Captured Eye, 2013, no.17.

The Weiss Gallery, From Merchants to Monarchs: Frans Pourbus the Younger, 2015, no.13.

Pourbus had painted Louis regularly over approximately a decade whilst at the French royal court, however the present design is unique, with no other known versions. Whilst in his portrayals of the king as a child he depicted the younger Louis in blue or red silk costumes, from adolescence, as here, he wears white silk with gold embroidery, redolent of his celestial kingly status. In our portrait, the costume itself is of an entirely new fashion – the doublet is of watered white silk, with multiple ripples and reflections, rather than the ‘slashes’ of his previous doublets. As well as golden embroidery there are additional and manifold gold buttons. Pourbus has relished every detail, from the clustered layers of lace in his newly rounded ruff, to the ironed fold in his blue sash from which is suspended the badge of the order of Saint Esprit. The young king retains the lovelock that first appeared in a portrait from 1617, but now his nascent moustache is apparent.


Our painting is believed to have been in the collection of the Dukes of Infantado, Spain, for many generations, one of the six most important Dukedoms in Spain. The family brought together two of the greatest Spanish historic collections, those of the Dukes of Lerma and the Dukes of Infantado, which were united following the marriage in 1686 of Doña Luisa Mendoza and the 1st Duke of Lerma. The portrait may then have entered the Osuna collection during the time of Pedro Nuñez Girón y Velasco Guzmán y Tovar, Duke of Osuna (1574 – 1624), who served Philip III as Capitán General and Viceroy to the kings of Sicily (1610 – 1616) and Naples (1616 – 1620). These last dates coincide with that of our portrait, which significantly is inscribed to the reverse in Italian. Pedro Nuñez Girón de Velasco, known as the Gran Duque de Osuna, was one of the most outstanding personalities in Italy at this time. His relationship with the Duke of Lerma, favourite of Philip III, was very close and extended even to the point of marrying his son and heir, Juan Tellez Girón, to the grand-daughter of the Duke of Lerma and daughter of the Marquis of Uceda. As with the earlier portrait of his younger sister Elisabeth, painted some ten years earlier, Pourbus sets the sitter against a rich crimson satin background.

Previous
|
Next
2 
of  25

SPECIALIST DEALER IN TUDOR, STUART & NORTHERN EUROPEAN OLD MASTER PORTRAITURE

The Weiss Gallery

59 Jermyn Street

London SW1Y 6LX

Get In Touch

+44 (0)20 7409 0035

info@weissgallery.com

Twitter, opens in a new tab.
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Privacy Policy
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2023 The Weiss Gallery
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join our mailing list

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

The Weiss Gallery will use the information you provide on this form to be in touch with you and to provide updates and marketing. Please let us know all the ways you would like to hear from us:

You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at info@weissgallery.com. We will treat your information with respect. For more information about our privacy practices please visit our website. By clicking below, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.