Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Late XVII century. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
Philip II of Orleans (1674 -1723) second son of Philip I of Orleans (P2301, P2345, P2380) and Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate (P2352) was regent of France during the minority of his nephew Louis XV, between 1715 and 1723. This canvas is one of a group of portraits collected by María Luisa de Orleans (1662-1689), first wife of Carlos II of Spain, which would become part of the Royal Collection. Some of these paintings must have decorated the Queen´s Gallery in the Alcázar (Madrid), a representation space where the Queen launched a decorative and iconographic program of exaltation of her dynasty. Others would be portraits of smaller relatives, generally of bust, that the sovereign would receive as a gift from them and that would decorate the private rooms of her room.
A very close version of the portrait, in oval format, is kept in the National History Museum of Denmark at Frederiksborg Castle (inv. 2921). (Information updated by the Departamento de Pintura Italiana y Francesa hasta 1800 on 1/27/2022)
