Louis XV (1710–1774), King of France 1757 Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne the Younger French In 1730 in paris the young jean-baptiste lemoyne and his ailing father, Jean-Louis Lemoyne, signed the contract to execute a bronze equestrian statue of Louis XV for the Place Royale at Despite a notorious casting disaster, Jean-Baptiste brought the work to completion in 1743. He went on to execute a monument to the king in Rennes (unveiled in 1754) and the presentation model for another at Rouen (cast in 1772).2 Louis was so well satisfied by these public celebrations of his reign that he ordered the
Louis XV (1710–1774), King of France 1757 Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne the Younger French In 1730 in paris the young jean-baptiste lemoyne and his ailing father, Jean-Louis Lemoyne, signed the contract to execute a bronze equestrian statue of Louis XV for the Place Royale at Despite a notorious casting disaster, Jean-Baptiste brought the work to completion in 1743. He went on to execute a monument to the king in Rennes (unveiled in 1754) and the presentation model for another at Rouen (cast in 1772).2 Louis was so well satisfied by these public celebrations of his reign that he ordered the sculptor to portray him in busts regularly, which Lemoyne did, until the king’s death, in 1774. Art historian Antoine-Nicolas Dézallier d’Argenville’s claim that these were made every three or four years reflects the widely held perception of many courtiers at the time that Lemoyne was the king’s portrait sculptor of choice. 3 In 1768 the king’s adviser on the arts, Charles-Nicolas Cochin, observed in a letter to the marquis de Marigny that Lemoyne was "the only artist who is now free to model after the King and who, consequently, is able to represent him as he actually is, with the greatest fidelity." 4 The sculptor had unusual freedom of access to the monarch for several decades. In all probability he sketched Louis — although few drawings for finished busts survive — and certainly he modeled him in clay. 5 The artist’s familiarity with the royal features is reflected in this confident representation of the busts of Louis by Lemoyne are listed in the records of the Administration of Royal Buildings (Direction des Bâtiments) but only two examples in marble are known today, one in a private collection in Paris, signed and dated 1749, and this one, also signed and dated, in the They are similar in format — the king wears a cuirass crossed by a sash and turns sharply to his left — but the Metropolita
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