Lot 68: Louis de Silvestre II (Sceaux or Paris 1675-1760 Paris)

Portrait of Prince Xavier of Saxony (1730-1806) as a child, full-length in a red coat with silver facings beating a drum; and Portrait of Princess Theresia of Saxony, full-length in an elaborately embroidered dress and cap with a garland of flowers on her lap
oil on canvas
39 1/2 x 32 7/8 in. (100.3 x 83.5 cm.)
a pair (2)

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 17 June 1988, lot 68.

There is an inscrption on the reverse of the first canvas: Printz Xavier/peint par Louis Silvestre/Nov. 1731 a Dresde./No 185, that has been obscured by the later relining. Louis Silvestre II was one of the most successful members of a family of painters whose father was the artist Israël Silvestre (Nancy 1621-1691 Paris). Like his other brothers, Louis was trained by his father, but soon left for Rome, where he worked with Carlo Maratta. He became court painter at Dresden in 1724 and was appointed Director of the Dresden Academy in 1727.

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