Louis XIV by Jean de la Haye

The pose of a man in a cuirass, holding a marshal’s baton, was conceived by the painter Hyacinthe Rigaud for the portrait of the Grand Dauphin painted in 1697. The painter subsequently reused this pose, or at least proposed it to his patrons by means of small-scale studies taken to the model’s home to help decide on the pose to be adopted. The pose was adopted on numerous occasions in various painted portraits, with variations as shown in the *Three Studies of Cuirasses*, a painting held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux.

It is for this reason that this portrait of Louis XIV was long attributed to Hyacinthe Rigaud or his studio. However, it must be attributed to the painter Jean de la Haye, as shown by the print held at the British Museum in London. Little is known about the painter Jean de la Haye, other than that he worked for Madame de Montespan. The reference to the great portraitist Hyacinthe Rigaud is nevertheless relevant, as Jean de la Haye adopts the same type of composition—dramatised by drapery—as well as the three-quarter left-side pose, with the marshal’s baton held aloft in the right hand.

Paradoxically, the engraver of this portrait, Gérard Edelinck, is better known. A Frenchman of Flemish origin, he was trained in Antwerp and joined his brother in Paris. He associated with the leading painters of the time, such as Philippe de Champaigne, Charles Le Brun and the engraver Robert Nanteuil. He was then noticed by Colbert, who appointed him engraver to the King’s cabinet and named him a professor at the Gobelins. Whilst he popularised numerous Italian and French paintings, he was also renowned for his portraiture, notably those of Louis XIV, Descartes, Colbert, as well as Le Brun, Rigaud and Champaigne.