(Mulhouse 1718–1760 Paris)
Portrait of King Louis XV of France, in armour with a blue ermine-lined fleur-de-lys embroidered cloak, with the Order of the Golden Fleece and the sash of the Order of Saint Esprit, holding a baton,
oil on canvas, 114.5 x 87 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly commissioned by the Jacobite Court;
Collection of Lord Elphinstone (according to a label on the reverse);
Private collection, England;
art market, England;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Jean Jacques Petit for suggesting the attribution.

The present painting is a significant rediscovery. It does not appear to be based on any known portrait type of the king and was hitherto unknown to scholars. This appears to be Heilmann’s most ambitious work and as such it is of historical importance.

Born in Mulhouse, into a family documented since the sixteenth century and orphaned at a young age, Heilman was apprenticed in Schaffhausen to the painter Hans Deggeller. His earliest patron was Cardinal Pierre-Paul Guérin de Tencin, a highly influential nobleman and ambassador of Louis XV in Rome. Heilman accompanied Tencin to Rome, and followed him to Paris in 1742, when the king appointed Tencin a Minister of State. An engraving by Wille after a portrait of the Cardinal by Heilman mentions Heilmann’s rank as court painter: ‘peint par J. G. Heilman, peintre de son eminence’.

Tencin’s sister was Claudine Guérin de Tencin, a highly influential salonist, mother of Jean le Rond d’Alambert and maitresse of the Duc de Richelieu, Louis XV’s close associate. It appears likely that the present portrait was commissioned by one of these patrons, or by the court. Heilmann seems to have moved in the highest social circles and became involved both with Johann Georg Wille, the engraver, and François Boucher. Heilmann often painted the models for Willes engravings. An engraving by Wille recording a portrait of Louis XV, dated 1745, mentions that it is based on a painting by Heilman, which in itself is mentioned to be inspired by Jean Baptiste Lemoyne (see fig. 1).

It appears plausible to assume that the present painting could be that lost model for the Wille engraving, or maybe a second, more elaborate version. Indeed, the present painting- and Willes engraving- resemble Jean Baptiste Lemoyne’s Portrait bust, of which examples are in Versailles and the Metropolitan Museum, very closely, down to the position of the curls of the wig (fig. 2).

Louis XV (1710–1774) ruled as King of France from 1715 until 1760. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity in 1723, his kingdom was ruled by Philippe d’Orléans, Duke of Orléans as Regent of France. During the war of the Austrian succession, he was one of the last monarchs to lead troops in battle. Whilst his later years were marked by political decline, when the present painting was comissioned in the early 1750s, the King was at the height of his popularity. He was known as Le Bien-Aime or ‘The Well-Loved’ and French political, diplomatic and stylistic popularity enjoyed its heyday across Europe.

Although the precise provenance of the present painting has not been firmly established. One would assume that it shares the provenance through some prominent Jacobite Families with other paintings in Lord Elphinstone’s collection. These other paintings have entered the Elphinstone collection by inheritance through Lady Clementia Flemming, wife of the 10th Baron Elphinstone; daughter of the 6th Earl of Wigton and Lady Mary Keith, sister of George Keith, tenth and last Earl Marischal of Scotland and prominent Jacobite. The fact that the present painting is framed in a very elaborate eighteenth century English Roccoco frame would argue for an early British provenance. Many paintings from the collection of James Alexander Elphinstone, 18th Lord Elphinstone were sold in 1994 following his death. The present painting, however, was not included in one of these sales.