Louis XV, King of France and Navarre

Painted in 1725 and held at the Museum of the History of France at Versailles, Jean-Baptiste van Loo's portrait of Louis XV as King of France and Navarre captures the young monarch in the early years of his personal rule. Louis XV had assumed the throne at five years old in 1715 following the death of Louis XIV and had ruled under regency until 1723; this 1725 portrait therefore shows a fifteen-year-old king at the very beginning of his independent reign. Van Loo was building his French career at this point, and a commission to paint the young king was an exceptional mark of favour and an important career milestone. The portrait's Versailles provenance integrates it into the extensive visual record of the French monarchy that the palace museum was created to preserve. As a record of Louis XV's youth, it has historical interest beyond its purely artistic qualities.

The demands of royal portraiture at this date required adherence to established conventions — armour or robes, sceptre or sword, architectural background — and van Loo complies while bringing a youthful lightness to the image that acknowledges the sitter's age. The face is rendered with the careful idealisation appropriate to royal likeness, conveying dignity without ageing the young king.