Louis Seize, Roi des Français, Restaurateur de la Liberté

LOUIS SEIZE, ROI DE FRANÇAIS, RESTAURATEUR DE LA LIBERTÉ
Charles-Clément Bervic, after Antoine ...

Status

Not on view

Label Text

French ambassador Jean-Baptiste Ternant (1750-1816) presented George Washington with this portrait of King Louis XVI on December 22, 1791. Washington prominently displayed it in the state room of his Philadelphia residence and, later, in Mount Vernon's New Room. Its magnificent frame - one of the most significant French palace-style frames extant - would have been commissioned by the King as a gift for the President of the new United States. Although the frame symbolically places the Royal crest of the Kings of France above Washington's coat of arms at bottom, this regal gift embodies the amicable Franco-American relations that characterized Washington's first term as president.

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Date1790

After Antoine-François Callet (French, 1741 - 1823)

Engraver Charles-Clément Bervic (French, 1756 - 1822)

Geography Published - FrancePrinted - France

Medium/TechniqueInk on paper; line engraving

DimensionsOverall (H x W x D Framed): 40 5/16 in. × 27 7/16 in. × 1 11/16 in. (102.39 cm × 69.69 cm × 4.29 cm) Overall (H x W Sight): 28 1/2 in. × 21 7/16 in. (72.39 cm × 54.45 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, 1939

Object numberW-767/A-B

DescriptionThis print is an official royal portrait of King Louis XVI of France and includes an original gilt wood frame, with which it was presented to George Washington.
SignedBervic's name is inscribed on the bottom-right edge of the print sheet.
Published ReferencesSusanne Anderson Riedel, Creativity and Reproduction: Nineteenth-Century Engraving and the Academy, (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), 52.

Ralph Nevill, French Prints of the Eighteenth Century, (London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1908), 220.

Thomas Birch's Auctioneers, Auction Catalogue, (Philadelphia: Thomas Birch's Auctioneers,1891), 36.

Willis O. Chapin, The Masters and Masterpieces of Engraving, (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1894), 167.

MarkingsPrinted in ink below the bottom-left corner of the image: "Pinxt par Callet Peinteur du Roi.". Printed in ink below the bottom-right corner of the image: "Grave en 1790, par Bervic, Graveur du Roi.". Printed in ink below the image, centered: "Louis Seize. / Roi des Francais, Restaurateur de la Liberte. / Presente Au Roi et a L'Assemblee Nationale. / Par l'Auteur.".

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