This is a copy of a portrait by Rigaud, dated 1713, and known in many versions, including examples at the Palace of Versailles and in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum. This copy is signed ‘peint par Guillemard 1714’. Unfortunately we know very little about this artist, beyond his name – Pierre Michel Guillemard.

The sitter was the daughter of Charles Louis, Elector Palatine (1617-80) and grand-daughter of the King and Queen of Bohemia. She was the second wife of Louis XIV’s younger brother, Philippe Duke of Orleans (1640-1701), whom she married in 1671. She was the mother of Philippe II, Duke of Orleans (1674-1723), who served as Regent of France from 1715 until his death. She is famous today because of her extensive correspondence, especially with her aunt, the Electress Sophia, mother of George I. 

A three-quarter-length portrait, seated, facing the spectator, her head turned slightly to the left; she wears a gold brocade dress with embroidered flowers and a blue mantle with fleur-de-lis, lined with ermine; on the right is a table with her coronet