Portrait of Duc de Berry, future Louis XVI, half-length, aged 15

The duc de Berry, later King Louis XVI of France (1754-1793), was the grandson of Louis XV and, as the last representative of the ancien rigime, ruled France from 1774 to 1792, when he fell victim to the Revolution and was subsequently guillotined in January 1793. While much of the official court patronage of the arts during his reign was directed by the influential Directeur-Giniral des Batiments du Roi, the comte d'Angivillier, Louis himself seems to have been particularly fond of the lesser genres of portraiture, still-life and landscape (indeed, it is said that he told the portrait painter Elisabeth-Louis Vigie Le Brun, 'I have no knowledge of painting, but you make me fond of it').

The prime version of this portrait of the duc de Berry is in Versailles (inv. no. 3889), which is signed and dated 1769. Other versions are in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and the Musée Garret, Vesoul.