Portrait of Philip V, King of Spain

(Versailles 1683 - Madrid 1746)

Oil on canvas

98 x 74 cm.

In a valuable period carved and gilded wooden frame 122 x 100 cm.

The painting examined here, depicting the portrait of King Philip V of Spain (Perpignan 1659 - Paris 1743), is to be placed in the atelier of the painter Hyacinthe RIGAUD (Perpignan 1659 - Paris 1743), one of the most significant portrait painters of his time and a great interpreter of the French school, working almost exclusively at the courts of Louis XIV and later Louis XV.

This is a work of remarkable formal and aesthetic elegance: note the meticulous rendering of facial features, the sharpness of the contours emphasised by the light, the expressive strength of the eyes. The face is characterised by chiaroscuro passages that verisimilarly reproduce light and its effects, rendered with great skill.

Philip V wears a black satin costume with a sword at his side, he wears the stiff white Spanish collar and at the same time wears the blue sash of the Order of the Holy Spirit and the Habsburg Order of the Golden Fleece: this meeting of the two main orders of France and Spain announced the possibility of a union between the two crowns.

In Spanish costume, this effigy is nonetheless fully in line with the French tradition of ceremonial portraiture, also testifying to the renewal that Rigaud had brought about, particularly through the relationship between the personage and the splendour of the decoration.

The work is inspired, in a reduced format to make it suitable for a private commission, by the large painting that Rigaud made for the sovereign around 1700, now in the Louvre (https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010057783), produced by the same workshop in numerous other versions.

The account books of Rigaud's workshop show, from 1701 to 1708, some 21 replicas of this subject, made by the master or often with the help of collaborators such as Charles Viennot (1674-1706) and Adrien Leprieur (1671-1732), today in numerous proven and public collections; these include the painting in Madrid (Palacio Real) and the one in the Uffizi in Florence (https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900641384), both versions that resemble the canvas we propose in terms of format and size.


The work is presented in an excellent state of conservation, completed by a magnificent antique frame in carved and gilded wood, in good condition, with slight defects and signs of time.

For further information, please contact us. You can also see the painting in our gallery in Riva del Garda, we will be happy to welcome you to show you our collection of works.

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