The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2024

Portrait of King Louis XIII of France

Portrait of King Louis XIII of France

1611
(Flemish, 1569–1622)
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.)

Did You Know?

While the color pink has feminine associations now, it was commonly worn by girls and boys alike in the 1600s.

Description

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.
  • 1610
    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
    2002
    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.
  • Artlens Exhibition 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24, 2017-May 29, 2019).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of King Louis XIII of France|url=false|author=Frans Pourbus|year=1611|access-date=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2003.225