The portrait of King Stanisław I Leszczyński in knight's armor.

(1683 Paris - 1757 Berlin) Portrait of King Stanislaus I Leszczyński of Poland, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, half-length portrait of the king as a military commander in armor without any signs of his royal dignity, his right hand resting on the upper end of a marshal's baton. While the body is depicted almost entirely in profile, he turns his head to his left side, with a calm gaze directed towards the viewer. Noticeable are a series of orders displayed, which the king himself wears, respectively, presented behind his back on a frame covered with red fabric: the upper star is that of the Order of St. Andrew, founded in 1698 by Tsar Peter I of Russia; below it is the Order of the Holy Anna, founded in 1735 by Duke Karl Friedrich Anton of Holstein-Gottorp; the corresponding jewel is worn by Stanislaus on a red necklace; the blue shoulder band may belong to the sash of the Polish Order of the White Eagle (founded in 1705 by King Augustus the Strong); in addition, he wears a small order cross on a red ribbon as a rosette, the Order of the Holy Louis (founded in 1693 by Louis XIV), probably awarded in 1725 when his daughter Maria Leszczyńska married Louis XV. The painting was probably created in 1735/36, after King Stanislaus I sought refuge with the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm in 1734 due to the Polish War of Succession and before he became Duke of Lorraine and Bar in 1736. What is striking about this portrait is the great similarity of the image type to the famous, widely replicated last portrait of Friedrich II, painted from life by Pesne, as Crown Prince in 1739 in the Berlin Picture Gallery (State Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage, Inv. No. 489). The two published Pesne catalogs from 1958/60 document only two portraits of the Polish king: a large knee-length portrait from 1736 (in Charlottenburg Palace) and a hidden portrait that was auctioned in Hamburg in 1779. It remains uncertain whether the latter is identical to the former. Oil on canvas; verso on the canvas an old (probably 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. Framed. Accompanied by an expertise from Professor Dr. Helmut Börsch-Supan, Berlin, 25th of April 2023.