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| Adam Frans van der Meulen Louis XIV crossing the Rhine in 1672 before 1690 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen Louis XIV crossing the Rhine in 1672 before 1690 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen Louis XIV crossing the Rhine in 1672 before 1690 oil on canvas Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte |
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen Louis XIV crossing the Rhine in 1672 before 1690 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen Louis XIV crossing the Rhine in 1672 before 1690 oil on canvas National Trust, Penrhyn Castle, Bangor, Wales |
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen Louis XIV crossing the Rhine in 1672 before 1690 oil on canvas Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen Louis XIV crossing the Rhine in 1672 before 1690 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon |
In the summer of 1672 the young Louis XIV led his armies across the Rhine – one among many episodes in a series of territorial campaigns against the Dutch. The motive behind these wars had more to do with vanity – glorification of the French monarchy – than with any essentialist version of politics. Adam Frans van der Meulen, a Flemish landscapist in French service under the direction of King's Painter Charle Le Brun, made sketches on the spot (though at a later date than the invasion proper) and subsequently in the studio worked up multiple versions of heroic memorial paintings. These, as noted by curators at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, "exclude the horror and morbid crudeness of events." Van der Meulen remained a reliable propagandist of Louis XIV for the rest of his life.
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen Louis XIV at the Siege of Courtrai in 1667 before 1690 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen Louis XIV and Queen Maria Theresa entering Arras in 1667 1684 oil on canvas Château de Versailles |
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen Louis XIV crossing the Pont Neuf ca. 1666 oil on canvas Musée de Grenoble |
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen Arrival of Louis XIV at the old Château de Versailles ca. 1675 oil on canvas Château de Versailles |
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen Construction of the new Château de Versailles 1669 oil on canvas Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen French Generals arriving before a Town 1678 oil on canvas Wellington Collection, Apsley House, London |
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen French Nobles on a Boar Hunt before 1690 oil on canvas York City Art Gallery |
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| Adam Frans van der Meulen The Colbert Family ca. 1680-83 oil on canvas Wellington Collection, Apsley House, London |