Louis XVI of France

Description

This embroidery was made in 1795, two years after the execution of Louis and Marie Antoinette, by an «ardent admirer of the Queen», la comtesse Antoinette Le Groing, «now citizen». She sent it to her French correspondent, Senator Falkner, with a handwritten dedication on the reverse. His addition to this dedication reveals that he thought highly of the embroidery, the «imaginem acu pictam», as a work worthy of Minerva. He parted with it in 1797, however, in order to give it to the Museum of the Fatherland («Patriae Museo») «in eternal remembrance of him» (Louis XVI). It is not known from which museum or through what channels the portrait finally found its way into the Basle University Library.