Getty Museum
Head of King Louis XV
Creator
François Le MoyneFrench Artist · 1688–1737
All works by this person →Consumed with ambition, hard on himself and everyone else, François Le Moyne simply wanted to paint great ceiling decorations. Despite winning the Prix de Rome in 1711, Le Moyne could not visit Italy until 1723 and then spent only a few months there. His Parisian instructor, however, introduced him to the art of Raphael, Correggio, and Peter Paul Rubens. Like his Baroque predecessors, Le Moyne cov
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1729
- Medium
- Black chalk and pastel, on blue paper (now discolored)
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
When François Le Moyne produced this pastel drawing of him, the French King Louis XV was only nineteen years old. Viewed from below, Louis poses informally without a wig, his hair left long and unpowdered. He gazes off into the distance, wearing a calm yet regal expression. Using fine strokes of black chalk, Le Moyne created the young king's gently curling hair. Delicate lines of pastel give soft highlights to his hair, eyes, nose, and slightly pursed lips. Darker shadows around the jaw line form Louis's round and fleshy chin. Le Moyne made this drawing as a preparatory study for the head of the king in an allegorical portrait, *Louis XV Bestows Peace upon Europe.* The work was commissioned in 1729 when the king was trying to build a central role for France as a peacemaker. The painting, which originally hung at the entrance to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, was as much a tool for propaganda as it was a portrait of the young ruler.
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