Louis Auguste, duc de Berry (later King Louis XVI, King of France [1754–1793] and Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, comte de Provence (later King Louis XVIII, King of France [1755-1824]) as Children

Drouais's 1760 portrait of the future Louis XVI and the future Louis XVIII as children is one of the most historically resonant works in his career — two boys who could not yet know the extraordinary fates awaiting them: one to die on the guillotine, one to restore the Bourbon monarchy after Napoleon's fall. Louis Auguste, then six years old, and his brother Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, then five, are depicted in the informal style Drouais favored for child portraits, the royal children playing at being ordinary children in a world that would be destroyed long before they came to rule it.

The child portrait double requires informal compositional invention — the boys are depicted in playful interaction rather than formal court pose. Drouais's soft handling of children's skin and simple costume suits the intimate scale. The warmth and sweetness he brings to child portraiture contrasts with the formal grandeur awaiting these particular sitters.