Louis XVIII, King of France (1755-1824)
Joseph Boze (Martigues c.1745 - Paris 1826)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
c. 1814 - 1820
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
734 x 595 mm
Place of origin
France
Collection
Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire
NT 1548300
Summary
Oil on canvas, Louis XVIII, King of France (1755-1824), by Joseph Boze (Martigues c.1745 - Paris 1826), circa 1814, signed centre right: Boze./f. See also NT 1548061 and 1548062, portraits of Louis-Stanislas-Xavier as comte de Provence (before he became king) and of his wife, Marie-Joséphine-Louise de Savoie.
Full description
A portrait of Louis XVIII by Boze was announced in the Journal de Paris on 23 June 1814 (shortly after the Bourbon Restoration): 'M. Boze, peintre, a eu l'honneur de présenter au roi un portrait de S.M. Fait d'après nature. S.M a bien voulu s'en montrer satisfaite. La gravure le multipliera incessamment.' ['Mr Boze, painter, had the honour of presenting to the king a portrait of his majesty done from life. His majesty was kind enough to show himself satisfied with it. The engraving will be reproduced shortly.'] See impression in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6955018g). As Gérard Fabre has written, Boze's initial portraits of the king are likely to have been produced in pastel: a more efficient medium for capturing busy and important royal subjects. These were worked up into a highly finished final version from which subsequent images were derived. In this case the original portrait of 1814 may have been executed in pastel, oil, or as a miniature - no medium is specified in the Journal de Paris announcement quoted above (Fabre 2004, p. 238). See Neil Jeffares, 'Joseph Boze', Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, London, 2006; online edition [http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/Boze.pdf] for a full biography of the artist.
Provenance
By 1995 with Galerie J. Kugel, Paris, where acquired by Mr. Herbert Guerrand-Hermès; his sale, Sotheby’s, Paris, December 18th 2023, lot 816; donated to the National Trust in 2025 for display at Hartwell House (Historic House Hotel) by an anonymous donor.
Marks and inscriptions
Right: Boze. / f
Makers and roles
Joseph Boze (Martigues c.1745 - Paris 1826), artist
References
Fabre 2004: Gérard Fabre, Joseph Boze, 1745-1826 : portraitiste de l'ancien régime à la restauration, Martigues (2004), pp. 238-9 Volcy-Boze 1873: J.-A.-Volcy Boze, Le comte Joseph de Boze, peintre de Louis XVI, Marseille (1873), p. 57