Louis Philippe, King of the French
Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin
This portrait of Louis Philippe dating to around 1830 was painted at the time of his ascension to the throne. The king is presented in an upright pose with a proud look in his eyes. He is wearing the red sash of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour across his richly embroidered uniform. It is not possible to determine whether the work was painted by Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin, who would have been around 70 years of age at the time, or by his significantly younger wife, Pauline. It is conceivable that the two collaborated on this work.
The miniature remained unfinished and was never given to the sitter, but it possibly served as a template for other portraits. Indeed, several very similar portraits are known.1 This portrait remained in the possession of Pauline’s family well into the 20th century until it was eventually sold in 1987.
Augustin created his first portrait of the sitter shortly after Napoleon’s deposition and the assumption of power by Louis XVIII.2 The artist exhibited the work at the 1814 Paris Salon together with his portraits of Louis XVIII and the Duke of Berry. The exhibits could be understood as the painter’s obeisance to the new regime as he had previously painted a large number of portraits of Bonaparte and his family.
B. P.