An important Royal White Marble Portrait of Monsieur DUC d'ORLEANS as "Hero of Cassel".
From the Royal Atelier and by Jacque Prou (1655-1706), this previously lost and unrecorded posthumous bust shows Louis XIV's brother at the time of his death (1701) when he was about 50 years old, wearing a very long curly wig that falls to his armour breast plate.
Here he is presented in his earlier military role as the "Hero of Cassel" clad in armour with a jobot tied at the neck and draped cloak around his shoulders, gazing to this right about 45 degrees.

This commemoration bust, probabl comissioned by Louis XIV circa 1704 is probably the one show in the Salon of 1704, according to the Salon livret. A less detailed copy of the bust is in the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

LITERATURE:

1. J.Guiffrey, Ed, "Collections des Livrets des Anciennes Expositions", Paris (Exposition de 1704 pp. 11-22)

2. National Gallery atalogue 1965, p 164, illustrated 1958, p.145. Kress Collection, catalogue 1945 (1949) 203 (as Duc de Cnaulnes by A. Coysevox.) Kress Collection catalogue, p 445 (as Philipe Duc d'Orléans by Jacque Prou the younger).

Another bust of Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, Comte de Toulouse, attributed to PROU and of very similar characteristics, is illustrated in a sale catalogue of 1981 at Sotheby's, MONACO.
2'6" x 3'3" high (including base)

Art (paintings, prints, frames)