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Portrait of King Louis XIII of France
Frans Pourbus the Younger1611
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
Although ten-year-old Louis XIII was king of France, his mother Marie de’ Medici remained in power until the boy officially came of age. Pourbus inscribed the sitter’s age and the painting’s year in the composition: “The holy year 1611 at his age of 10 years.” Marie de’ Medici commissioned this work as she negotiated marriages for her two children to Philip III of Spain and Mary Marguerite of Austria, alliances that led to the European domination of the next two centuries by the Bourbon and Habsburg families.
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Details
- Title: Portrait of King Louis XIII of France
- Creator: Frans Pourbus (Flemish, 1569–1622)
- Date Created: 1611
- Physical Dimensions: Framed: 186.7 x 122.4 x 6.3 cm (73 1/2 x 48 3/16 x 2 1/2 in.); Unframed: 159.3 x 95.3 cm (62 11/16 x 37 1/2 in.)
- Provenance: Marie de Medici, Philippe III of Spain, W. J. Brigstocke of Carmarten, Josiah Wedgwood III (1795-1880) of Leith Hill Place, Surrey, Margaret Wedgwood (1843-1937), wife of Rev. Arthur Charles Vaughan-Williams (1834-1875), Vaughan-Williams family of Tanhurst House, Leith Hill, Surrey, Mark Weiss, Commissioned in 1610 by Marie de Medici, Philippe III of Spain, W. J. Brigstocke of Carmarten, Josiah Wedgwood III (1795-1880) of Leith Hill Place, Surrey, By inheritance to Margaret Wedgwood (1843-1937), wife of Rev. Arthur Charles Vaughan-Williams (1834-1875), By inheritanace to the Vaughan-Williams family of Tanhurst House, Leith Hill, Surrey, Acquired at the hotel Drouot in 2002 by Mark Weiss, The Weiss Gallery, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.
- Type: Painting
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2003.225
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Inscriptions: Signed with the monogram lower right: F.P. FACIEBAT. Inscribed middle right: AN° SAL. 1611. AETA'. SVAE. A°. 10. Inscribed with inventory number lower left 783. Inscribed on the reverse, on a hand written label: brought back from Rome by J. W. Brigstocke of Carmarthen.
- Fun Fact: While the color pink has feminine associations now, it was commonly worn by girls and boys alike in the 1600s.
- Department: European Painting and Sculpture
- Culture: Flanders
- Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Collection: P - Netherlandish-Flemish
- Accession Number: 2003.225
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