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Lot Essay
The refined late Louis XIV details of finely-recut acanthus-sheathed strapwork scrolls at the corners and centers and the forward-looking rocaille cartouche flanked by naturalstic reeds above, firmly place this frame in the early Louis XV idiom. This elegant model was produced by the sculpteurs des Bâtiments du Roi for half and three-quarter-length copies of full-sized portraits, usually of the King, either intended for the public rooms of the various Royal residences, or given by him to ministers, French ambassadors, foreign dignitaries at home and abroad, and his children. As Watson suggests, this frame may origianlly have held a portrait of the young Louis XV painted during his minority (1715-23).
A smaller Royal frame with a similar fleur-de-lys cabochon-centered rocaille cartouche not flanked by reeds was in the collections of Paul Helleu and Jean Bloch (sold at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris 28-29 March 1928, lot 166 and 13 June 1963, lot 77, respectively, and subsequently resold 15 December 1982. Two larger Royal frames with similar acanthus-sheathed scrolled-strapwork-decorated centers and corners were in the collections of Paul Helleu (see above lot 119), resold Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 20 March 1953, lot 66 and R. Caron, sold Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 21 December 1936.
A smaller Royal frame with a similar fleur-de-lys cabochon-centered rocaille cartouche not flanked by reeds was in the collections of Paul Helleu and Jean Bloch (sold at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris 28-29 March 1928, lot 166 and 13 June 1963, lot 77, respectively, and subsequently resold 15 December 1982. Two larger Royal frames with similar acanthus-sheathed scrolled-strapwork-decorated centers and corners were in the collections of Paul Helleu (see above lot 119), resold Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 20 March 1953, lot 66 and R. Caron, sold Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 21 December 1936.