Portrait of Louise-Elisabeth of France with her son

The portrait of Madame Louise-Elisabeth of France, Infante d'Espagne, Duchesse de Parme, was commissioned by King Louis XVI's aunts and it shows one of the daughters of Louis XV with her son. The shadows on her face and on the wall in back of her may symbolize death, in fact she died of a smallpox at the age thirty-two. Completed in 1788, one year after the commission, the picture idealizes its subject, who stands on a terrace in a relaxed, graceful pose, dressed in the low-cut and elaborately decorated costume popular in late eighteen-century.Guiard was well known for her ability to render the fancy dress of the time and many of her paintings featured low necklines which bordered on the risque'.