(Marseilles 1716–1785 Paris) Portrait of two children as musicians in front of a bust of their mother, monogrammed indistinctly lower left, oil on copper, 21 x 17 cm, framed

It is possible that these children are Louis Antoine, Duc d’Angoulême, and his brother, Charles Ferdinand, Duc de Berry, in front of the bust of their mother, Marie Thérèse, Comtesse d’Artois, Princess of Savoye. The physiognomy of the young Duc and that of the mother are identifiable. At around the same age in 1785 the young duke was portrayed by Joseph Boze, and the present painting may thus also be dated to around this time. Another portrait of both brothers also painted at the time along with their sister by Anne Rosalie Filleul shows the princes with the same little dog that is depicted here. The Duc d’Angoulême followed his father into exile in Turin in 1789 and headed up the French army in exile. In 1799 he married Madame Royale, the only daughter of King Louis XVI, in Mitau in the Kurland. On the death of King Louis XVIII, the Duc’s father, the Comte d’ Artois, became the new King of France as Charles X. The Duc d’Angoulême thus became the new dauphin. In 1830 the July Revolution banished the King and his entire family from France. Dagoty, who, as a favoured painter in the courtly circles around Queen Marie Antoinette, had produced several group portraits in a small format, later became known primarily as an engraver. In a lovely original frame dating from the period around 1790.