Costumes for the Polish masquerade - portraits of Louis XIV and Louise de La Vallière by Joseph Werner the Younger, circa 1664

 

The two portraits are painted in gouache on parchment, each fourteen by eleven inches.

Louise de La Vallière would have been not quite twenty when this was painted.

Louis XIV, king of France from the age of four had, in 1660, at the age twenty-two, made a dynastic marriage with an infanta of Spain. But it wasn't until the following year that he is said to have fallen in love for the first time. The young lady in question was the seventeen-year old Louise de La Vallière, a maid of honour to the king's sister-in-law. She was neither a great beauty nor brilliant, but she had lovely ash-blond hair, a beautiful complexion, and a sweet smile that reflected her gentle nature. And though she had one leg shorter than the other, she was a graceful and accomplished dancer and horsewoman - both activities very important to the king - and Louis was captivated by her. And unlike so many royal mistresses, before and since, she was not at all interested in the many gifts and titles the king showered on her, and she resisted all attempts to embroil her in palace intrigues; she was only ever in love with the man, not the king. But she was also very religious, greatly embarrassed by her position, and mortified by being placed more and more in the spotlight. 

Their intimate relationship would last six years and she bore her royal lover five children, though only two of whom would survive infancy. Not by nature or exalted rank inclined to be faithful, the king's passion for his retiring mistress eventually cooled. And in 1667 he took up with the beautiful and fiery Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan, at the same time legitimizing his two surviving children with Louise and raising her to the rank of duchesse. Curiously, the king refused to let her leave court, throwing the two mistresses - one current, the other former - together, to Louise's great distress. Eventually, after years of enduring this awkward and painful situation, and becoming ever more religious, she attempted to retire to a convent. But she did so without the king's permission and was compelled to return to court. Finally, though, in 1674, a full seven years after her relationship with the king had ended, she was allowed to leave. She entered the Carmelite convent in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques and the following year she pronounced her perpetual vows as a Carmelite nun under the name of Sister Louise of Mercy. And at the age of sixty-five, after thirty-six years of religious life, she died and was buried in the cemetery of her convent.

According to a letter from the prince de Condé to the Queen of Poland, a large Polish-style masquerade was held at court on 29 February 1664.

Louis XIV turned twenty-six in September of 1664.

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Joseph Werner the Younger (22 June 1637, Bern – 21 September 1710, Bern),  Swiss painter, known for miniatures, and called "the Younger" to distinguish him from his father, also a painter. First taught by his father, he furthered his studies in Frankfurt before going to Rome. He then traveled to France where he painted portraits of the king and many of the court notables, as well as contributing to the decoration of Versailles. He later worked at the courts of Augsburg, Berlin, and Dresden. His two sons also became successful artists.