3-002-828 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Portrait of King Louis XVI, late 18th century. Although well intentioned, Louis XVI (1754-1793) lacked the intelligence and the foresight to cope with the radical changes occurring in France during his reign (1774-1893). He was imprisoned in 1792 and beheaded the following year. Louis Marie Sicard was a painter at the French Court between 1780 and 1784. The signature "R. Fortin" is a later addition. (Fortin, a French artist who fled to England during the French Revolution, exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, misleadingly listing himself as "a member of France's Royal Academy" and "painter to the French King.")