Portrait of King Stanisław I Leszczyński in knight's armor

(1683 Paris - 1757 Berlin) Portrait of King Stanisław I Leszczyński of Poland, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, a half-portrait of the king in knight's armor without any signs of royal dignity, his right hand resting on the upper end of a marshal's baton. The body is depicted almost entirely in profile, he turns his head to the left, with a calm gaze directed at the viewer. A number of displayed orders are noticeable, which the king himself wears, correspondingly presented from behind on a frame covered with red fabric: the upper star is the Order of St. Andrew, established in 1698 by Tsar Peter I of Russia; below is the Order of St. Anne, founded in 1735 by Duke Charles Frederick Anton of Holstein-Gottorp; the corresponding jewel is worn by Stanisław on a red necklace; the blue shoulder sash may belong to the ribbon of the Polish Order of the White Eagle (established in 1705 by King Augustus the Strong); additionally, he wears a small order cross on a red ribbon in the form of a rosette, the Order of Saint Louis (established in 1693 by Louis XIV), likely awarded in 1725 when his daughter Maria Leszczyńska married Louis XV. The painting was probably created in 1735/36, after King Stanisław I found refuge with the Prussian King Frederick William in 1734 due to the Polish War of Succession and before he became Duke of Lorraine and Bar in 1736. Remarkable in this portrait is the great similarity in the type of depiction to the well-known, widely reproduced last portrait of Frederick II, painted from life by Pesne in 1739 in the Berlin Picture Gallery (State Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage, Inv. No. 489). In two published catalogues of Pesne, issued in 1958/60, only two portraits of the Polish king are documented: a large half-portrait from 1736 (in Charlottenburg Palace) and a concealed portrait, put up for auction in Hamburg in 1779. It is unclear whether they are the same. Oil on canvas; on the reverse of the canvas, an old (possibly later added) inscription "Peint à Berlin (...) t Pesne Berlin an 17 (...)", the last two digits of the year are missing. 82 cm x 66 cm. The conclusion of Professor Dr. Helmut Börsch-Supan, Berlin, April 25, 2023, is attached.