Louis XV, Passions of a King

Attributed to Nicolas de Largillière and his studio, Madame de Ventadour with king Louis XIV and his heirs, ca. 1715, with kind permission from the Trustees of the Wallace Collection, London.

Born in 1710 in Versailles, Louis XV was the son of the Duke of Burgundy and Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy, and Louis XIV’s great-grandson. He became heir to the throne or “Dauphin” on the death of his father in 1712 and king at the age of five in 1715 on the death of the Louis XIV. In 1722, shortly after the government and Court returned to Versailles, the young king was crowned in Reims. This ceremony marked the beginning of a long reign that would stretch over fifty years, a chapter in which France’s cultural and artistic model gained traction across Europe and the philosophy of the Enlightenment emerged.

Louis XV, Passions of a King seeks to reveal more about Louis XV whose reign and personality remain somewhat of a mystery: who was Louis XV and what was he like? What were his passions? What were the arts like in his day, what were his personal tastes and what did his day-to-day life look like?