After Alexandre Roslin, 'The Dauphin, Louis de France', 1765 or later

This is a portrait of Louis-Joseph-Xavier, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), the son and heir of King Louis XV of France. He is dressed in the uniform of a colonel of the Dauphin-Dragons, and wearing the blue sash of the Order of the Saint-Esprit and the red sash of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Our picture is a painted copy of Roslin’s three-quarter-length portrait of the Dauphin commissioned and painted in 1765 and now at Versailles.

Roslin based the Dauphin’s features on one or two earlier portraits he had made of him from life – one in pastels (Versailles) and one in oils (current whereabouts unknown). The pastel portrait was made in 1765, the last year of the Dauphin’s life, and reflects his weight loss as a result of tuberculosis. It was the final likeness taken of him, and was used for a number of copies and derived portraits in the years immediately after his death.

Roslin’s three-quarter-length painting of the Dauphin in Versailles is undoubtedly his first version of the composition. There is evidence that Roslin changed the outline of the wig on the right-hand side of the sitter’s face but there is no sign of any similar change of mind in the National Gallery’s painting, suggesting that it was copied from the Versailles version and not the other way round. The Versailles painting also reveals the visible trace of the lace at the collar of the shirt seen in the pastel, which has been painted out. This detail was never included in the National Gallery’s version. This raises the question of whether our portrait was also painted by Roslin himself as an autograph replica. Although the epaulette on the shoulder of the Dauphin’s coat has been painted with a deft sureness of touch, the seam of the sleeve has been incorrectly depicted, suggesting that the painting is more likely to be a good quality early copy rather than an original by Roslin. The Dauphin’s rosy complexion in the National Gallery’s painting also differs from the Versailles original and does not reflect his known state of health. It may have been made by the portraitist Jean-Martial Frédou (1710–1795) or some other talented copyist employed by the Cabinet du Roi (King’s collection) to make duplicate images of the royal family directly from the original paintings.