Louis-Philippe-Joseph (1747–1793), duc de Montpensier, Later duc d'Orléans

Louis-Philippe-Joseph, duc de Montpensier at a National Trust property (1749) depicts the young prince who would later become infamous as Philippe Égalité, the Orléans prince who voted for Louis XVI's execution during the Revolution and was himself guillotined in 1793. In 1749 this future regicide was just two years old, depicted by Boucher in the manner of royal childhood portraiture that presented young aristocrats as miniature adults in aristocratic dress. Boucher painted several members of the Orléans family, whose cultural refinement and wealth made them among the most important non-royal patrons of Rococo art. The duke of Montpensier's later political radicalism gives this infant portrait a retrospective irony: the child in silk painted by France's most decorative court painter would grow up to help dismantle the world in which such paintings were made. The National Trust's holdings of French eighteenth-century art reflect the collecting activities of British aristocrats on the Grand Tour.

The portrait of the young prince is rendered with refined handling and warm palette. Boucher's treatment combines royal formality with childhood charm.