Adam-François van der MEULEN and workshop Brussels, 1632 - Paris, 1690 Louis XIV and Queen Maria Theresa in front of a town in the North of France, probably Douai Black pencil Two assembled sheets of paper One sheet watermarked 'IHS' and the other watermarked with 'B, coeur, C' in cartouche (Freckles) Louis XIV and the Queen Maria Theresa in front of a city of Northern Europe, black pencil, by A. F. van der Meulen and workshop 37 x 63,50 cm (14,57 x 25 in.) Provenance: Acquired in the 1980s by the current owner; Private collection, Paris Comment: The eldest of four children, Adam-François van der Meulen began his apprenticeship in 1646 with Peter Snayers, a painter of battles at the Brussels court. He quickly embraced this genre, which had been booming since the Thirty Years' War. From 1664 onwards, his name would be irremediably linked with the glory of Louis XIV's armies. On his accession to the throne in 1661, the young king made clear recommendations to the members of the Académie: "I entrust to you the thing in the world that is most precious to me, which is my glory". From then on, it was Le Brun's responsibility to place all the liberal arts at the service of the monarchy. In accordance with Colbert's directives, the king's first painter began to attract the most skilful artists to the service of the French king. His research transcended borders, and van der Meulen caught his eye very early on. Van der Meulen received a letter from Le Brun asking him to come to Paris and enter the service of the king in return for an annual pension of 2,000 livres. As soon as he arrived, van der Meulen was invited to take part in Louis XIV's campaigns in Flanders. His job was to propose works depicting the king's magnificence in front of the strongholds that had just been conquered. This impressive drawing, traditionally identified as a view of Arras, is more likely to be a view of Douai. The many destructions and alterations to fortified towns in Flanders during the 17th and 18th centuries make it difficult to identify them in drawings or paintings. The solemn entry of the king and royal family into Douai was one of the high points of the War of Devolution (1667-1668), the first of the young sovereign's great wars. As its name suggests, this war was caused by the respective claims of Louis XIV and Emperor Leopold I to the succession of their common father-in-law, King Philip IV of Spain. The King of France launched a summer campaign towards the Spanish Netherlands in May 1667: Charleroi, Ath, Tournai and finally Douai on 7 July fell in the space of a month. Wonderfully supported by the great artists Charles Le Brun and Adam Frans van der Meulen, the king decided on an iconographic programme to celebrate this military campaign, using tapestry as the medium. Of the many subjects chosen for the 'Histoire du Roy' tapestry, five relate to events in the War of Devolution. After the siege of Tournai, the second episode represented was the siege of Douai, which took place on 4 July 1667. In his 'Mémoire', Van der Meulen quotes the sketch that concerns us here: "Plus l'entrée de la Reine devant la porte de Douay, pour le même sujet", i.e. for the tapestry1. There were therefore two subjects chosen for Douai: the capture of the town and the solemn entry on 23 August. The royal family's entry took place at the end of the summer, not directly after the capture of the town. An astute strategist, Louis XIV wanted to reap the rewards of the special attention he paid to newly captured towns by honouring them with carefully thought-out solemn entries. The scene depicted in our painting is a highly political event on the part of the young sovereign who, in order to lay claim to the Spanish provinces, organised an honour for this city in the person of the French queen Maria Theresa of Spain, daughter of their former master Philip IV! 1. J. Guiffrey, "Van der Meulen. Mémoire de ses travaux pour le roi depuis le 1er avril 1664" and "Inventaire des tableaux et dessins trouvés chez lui, aux Gobelins, le 6 mars 1691", Nouvelles archives de l'Art français, 1879, I, p. 122.