Louis, Duc de Berry (later Louis XVI) and his brother Louis Comte de Provence (later Louis XVIII) are pictured here as children – Louis XVI as three years old with blue eyes, Louis XVIII as two with grey eyes.

Louis XVI (1754-93) was the last king of France before the French Revolution. The royal family was forcibly brought from Versailles to Paris in October 1789 and their attempt to flee the country in 1791 ended when they reached Varennes. The monarchy was abolished in September 1792 and Louis was guillotined in January 1793. His son, Louis XVII died in 1795.

Louis XVIII (1755-1814) was the brother of Louis XVI and grandson of Louis XV of France. He fled from the French Revolution to England and led the counter-revolutionary movement. Louis spent much of his time in England at Hartwell in Buckinghamshire. He was restored to the throne in 1814 but was forced to flee again until Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo in 1815.

This is a copy of a painting by F.-H. Drouais, now in the Sao Paolo Museum. The inscription on the back of the miniature wrongly identified the portraits as being of Anne, princess royal, and her sister Mary, daughters of George II, and attributing the work to A. S. Belle. The identity of the artist is unknown.