King Louis XVI of France, facing left in coronation robes, ermine cloak, lace cravat, wearing the chains of the Order of the Golden Fleece and of the Royal French Order of the Holy Ghost, powdered curled wig

Two very similar versions, dated 1783 and also copied after the state portrait by Duplessis of 1777, are in the Louvre (see P. Jean-Richard, Miniatures sur ivoire. Musée du Louvre. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 1994, p. 316, no. 578, 579).

Louis XVI, King of France 1774-1792, was born in 1754, a grandson of King Louis XV. In 1770, he was married to Archduchess Marie-Antoinette of Habsburg (see lot 45) and in 1793, he died on the guillotine. For a miniature of his daughter, see lot 64.