Oval miniature painted on enamel on copper, unsigned, representing the Sun King in a three-quarter bust on the right, in armor, wearing the large cord of the Order of the Holy Spirit, on a brown background.

Louis XV period.

In a posterior oval frame in gilt-bronze in Louis XVI style, with easel foot on the back, on a blue silk velvet background.

Good condition.

H. 3 x L. 2.3 cm.

Frame: H. 5.5 x L. 4 cm.

Charles Boit is a painter of miniatures on Swedish enamel, specializing in portraits of European courts. A pupil of Pierre Signac (French miniaturist living in Sweden from 1646 to 1677), he was first made an official enameler of the English Court in 1696. He then traveled to Holland, Russia, Dusseldorf, Dresden then Vienna, before d 'arrive in Paris in 1715. First protected by the Duke of Aumont, lieutenant-general of the Armies and first gentleman of the King's Chamber, then of the Regent (his portrait by Boit is in the Louvre), he is introduced by this- last with the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, then with King Louis XV, whom he painted at least five times. His entry work is also a large portrait of the King, now lost, for which he receives a large chain and a gold medal. He was the first Swede to join the Academy in 1717.

Then Boit traveled to Dresden in 1719 and returned to Paris the following year where he remained until his death. Our portrait, characteristic of the artist's style although not monogrammed, was certainly produced between 1720 and 1727, in posthumous homage to the Sun King, represented hairless in a sort of eternal youth.

Gunnar W. Lundberg, Charles Boit, 1662-1727: Swedish enameler-miniaturist. Biography and critical catalog, ed. by the Ticino Institute, 1987.