FRENCH SCHOOL, LATE 17TH CENTURY

The traditional identification of the subject of this charming portrait as Louis de France, son of King Louis XIV and nicknamed the Grand Dauphin (1661-1711), was until recently accompanied by a traditional attribution to the great French portraitist Nicolas de Largillière (1656-1746). While the name of the Grand Dauphin was already abandoned in 1950 (Shoolman and Slatkin, op. cit.), the name of Largillière remained attached to the drawing (at least in print) until the sale of the Stralem collection in 1984. That auction also marked the moment when the sheet was separated from a second one by the same hand and in the same technique (Warwick sale, lot 206; Heseltine, op. cit., no. 43, ill.; Stralem sale, lot 153; Prat, op. cit., p. 440, fig. 1057). An attribution to Largillière can seem supported by the comparison with such paintings as the Portrait of a young man and his tutor in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (inv. 1961.9.26; see and P. Conisbee,French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century, Washington, 2009, no. 66, ill.). However, the style of the two portraits in chalk is difficult to reconcile with the small number of drawings that are considered securely attributed to the artist (D. Brême in Nicolas de Largillière, 1656-1746, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, 2003-2004, nos. 25-39, ill.). A third sheet with studies of young cavaliers appears to be by the same hand (whereabouts unknown; see Prat, op. cit., p. 449, fig. 1958).