Portrait of Louis de France, Duc de Bourgogne (1682-1712), three-quarter-length, in armour, a battlefield beyond

The sitter in the present portrait is Louis de France, titular Duke of Burgundy and grandson of Louis XIV. In April 1702, during the War of the Spanish succession, he was given nominal command of the French army of the Lower Rhine against the Duke of Malborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy. That year, he distinguished himself at the Battle of Nijmegan, which this portrait probably commemorates. Upon the death of his father Louis the Great Dauphin in 1711, he became heir to the throne of France. Eventually his son was to become Louis XV.

The prime version of the present portrait, painted by Rigaud and Joseph Parrocel, is part of the Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood House, London (see J. Bryant, Kenwood, paintings in the Iveagh Bequest, New Haven, 2003, no. 36, pp. 160-3, illustrated). Fourteen replicas of this portrait by Rigaud and his studio are recorded.