Charles X (1757-1836), King of France

Charles X of France, painted by Lawrence around 1825 and in the Royal Collection, was newly crowned when this portrait was made — he had acceded to the throne following his brother Louis XVIII's death in September 1824. Charles was the last surviving son of Louis XV to have ruled France, the younger brother of the guillotined Louis XVI, and a man whose entire adult life had been shaped by the catastrophe of the French Revolution — exile, the death of his brother and sister-in-law, the years of émigré existence, and finally the Restoration that brought him back to France in 1814. His coronation at Reims in 1825 was an elaborately reactionary spectacle deliberately evoking the ancien régime ceremonies that the Revolution had destroyed, and his subsequent policies — censoring the press, compensating émigré families for revolutionary land seizures — made clear that he had learned nothing from the revolutionary experience. Lawrence's portrait at 269.7 by 179.5 centimeters captures the king's aristocratic bearing and the stubborn confidence that blinded him to political reality; within five years the July Revolution would sweep him and the entire Bourbon dynasty from France permanently, completing the political revolution that had begun with his brother's execution thirty-six years earlier.

Lawrence presents the French king with formal elegance and Bourbon dignity. The careful rendering of French royal robes and decorations demonstrates Lawrence's customary attention to ceremonial regalia in his diplomatic portraits.