The Beaubruns

The Portrait of “Little Mister”



Philippe de France, son of France, titled at birth Duke of Anjou then Duke of Orléans in 1660, born September 21, 1640 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and died June 9, 1701 at the Château de Saint-Cloud, is a prince of the French royal family, son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, and younger brother of Louis XIV. Affectionately called "little Monsieur" to distinguish him from his uncle Gaston d'Orléans, brother of Louis XIII, he would subsequently take the title of "Monsieur" reserved under the old regime for the king's oldest brother. Excluded from command activities very early in order to prevent him from developing an appetite for power, he was mainly raised by his mother and the women of the Court.

Several representations of the king's brother as a child exist, but he is often accompanied by his mother Anne of Austria and his brother. Our work must also be compared to another painting representing the dolphin and his brother, today kept at the Sa Bassa Blanca museum in Majorca which holds an important collection of child portraits. In this painting the two princes wear satin costumes, Louis's is embroidered in gold while Philippe's is covered in silver. They are both wearing a crush, yellow for the future monarch and blue for his little brother. The latter holds a white dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit, which Louis caresses. Both are adorned with the cord of the Order of the Holy Spirit, received by the sons of France upon their baptism. They are seated in two armchairs covered in purple velvet and gold trimmings, in front of a curtain of the same velvet and the same ornaments. In our work, Philippe de France wears exactly the same attire, which allows us to think that the two paintings were created at the same time. In 1899, the double portrait appeared in the sales catalog of the Broadwood collection in London. It was kept in England until 1981. According to information provided by the Sa Bassa Blanca museum, its origin could indicate that it was a work sent by Anne of Austria to the English court with a view to marriage, as she would later do for the court of Spain. Our painting in a smaller and more intimate format could be a more personal object. The precious inscription in our painting allows us to precisely date the two works, it being indicated that the child is two years and two months old, they were produced around November 1642. To our knowledge it is therefore the first known representation of “little Mister”.