Offered by Galerie Thierry Matranga
Oil on copper. 18th-century French school, follower of Jean Ranc.
The handsome young Fernand de Bourbon et Savoie, great-grandson of Louis XIV, is portrayed in a three-quarter-face half-body view. Barely a dozen years old, the future King of Spain is dressed as a military commander, complete with cuirass and helmet. Our precious cabinet painting is a replica of the painting commissioned in 1725 by King Philip V from Jean Ranc, now in the Prado Museum. Our replica perfectly illustrates the art of pageantry and color, and its qualities are real.
Fernando VI, who reigned from 1746 until his death, carried out financial and military reforms, revived trade, established factories, dug canals, re-established the navy, promoted education, created several universities and founded the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Saint-Ferdinand. By the end of his reign, despite all this spending, Spain's coffers were full, the like of which had not been seen for three centuries.
In its Louis XIII period French carved and gilded wood frame
Dimensions: 25.5 x 20 cm - 40.5 x 34 cm with frame
Sold with invoice and certificate of appraisal.
Biography
Jean Ranc (Montpellier 1674 - Madrid 1735) was the son of Montpellier painter Antoine Ranc (1634 - 1716), who was the teacher of Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659 - 1743), who in turn was Jean Ranc's master. This led to a close friendship between the two families and a virtual filiation: Jean Ranc married Marguerite Elisabeth Rigaud, daughter of the painter Gaspard Rigaud and niece of Hyacinthe. Settling in Paris in 1696, Jean Ranc worked in Rigaud's workshop, and his art bore a certain resemblance to that of his elder brother. On July 28, 1703, he was admitted to the Académie as a portraitist, notably with his portrait of Nicolas van Plattenberg, known as “Platte-Montagne”. Now established, he found an audience among the Parisian bourgeoisie and produced a large number of canvases in a style close to that of his teacher. His breakthrough came in 1722, when Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV and first king of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain, commissioned him to paint portraits of the royal family.