Window mode follows your eyes with your camera, in this browser only: no picture or position leaves your device.
Portrait of Louis XVIII
Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin (French, 1759–1832)
1822
- Medium
- enamel in a stamped gilt metal mount
- Classification
- Portrait Miniature
- Dimensions
- Framed: 7.7 x 6.8 cm (3 1/16 x 2 11/16 in.); Sight: 4.9 x 3.9 cm (1 15/16 x 1 9/16 in.)
- Culture
- France, 19th century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- The Edward B. Greene Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
As the official miniaturist for the French court of Louis XVIII, Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin produced portraits of many elite personalities. This miniature features Louis Stanislas Xavier, King Louis XVIII, in military costume. Taking the throne after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, Louis ruled from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief period in 1815 when Napoleon escaped from exile and regained power. This type of official portrait in miniature was useful as a diplomatic gift and was probably commissioned in large numbers. In fact, there are two versions of this miniature in the museum's collection, one in watercolor on ivory and this one in enamel. Here, Louis wears the blue ribbon and the silver star of the Order of the Holy Ghost, the star and the cross of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Lazarus, and the cross of the Order of Saint Louis. The complicated process of enameling prevented many artists from mastering it well enough to realize such precise details as seen here. To create an enameled portrait, layers of colored metal oxides are fired at various temperatures, affording many opportunities for imperfection. Once an enamel has hardened, however, it is impervious to…
