Louis XVI (1754–1793), King of France

Callet is recorded as a painter of history pieces and mythological subjects as well as portraits. He was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1764, was admitted to the Académie in 1780, and exhibited at the Salon from 1781. Callet completed his first official portrait of Louis XVI in coronation robes in 1779. He painted a number of variants, one of which was engraved by C. C. Bervic (1756–1822) and the latest of which (Musée Bargoin, Clermont-Ferrand) was exhibited at the Salon of 1789. Subsequently he entered the service of Napoléon I.

Although Leo R. Schidlof (The Miniature in Europe in the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries, Graz, 1964, 4 vols.) does not mention Callet as a miniature painter, this work is presumably by him. Several bust-length portraits of the king in oil by or attributed to Callet are recorded, and in at least one of these (art market, 1979) he wears a similar costume with the same decorations.

The sitter wears the blue ribbon and badge of the Order of the Saint-Esprit, and the red ribbon and badge of the Order of Saint-Louis. The costume is identical to that worn by Louis XVI in a miniature by Jean Laurent Mosnier (1743/44–1808) also in The Met (62.122.69).

[2016; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

Inscription: Signed and dated(?) (right, in black): Callet / 1787

Giovanni Pertinax Morosini, Riverdale-on-Hudson, N.Y. (until d. 1908); his daughter, Giulia Morosini, Riverdale-on-Hudson, N.Y. (1908–d. 1932)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 57.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "In Miniature," August 29–December 28, 2014, no catalogue.

Graham Reynolds with the assistance of Katharine Baetjer. European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1996, pp. 11, 14, 96–97, no. 57, colorpl. 57 and ill. p. 96, state that it is presumably by Callet.