Portrait of Henry IV, King of France

The order came from Christina of Lorraine, the dowager grand duchess of Tuscany, and her ambassador in Paris, the Marchese Botti, placed it with Pourbus in 1611. Florence wanted a pair of French royal portraits, and one of them was supposed to be the reigning king, Louis XIII, then a boy of nine. What the painter delivered instead was the boy's father. Henry IV had been stabbed to death in his carriage on a Paris street in May 1610, and here he stands in full coronation costume, gold fleurs-de-lis and ermine, the crown set out on a red-draped table beside him. Botti kept the picture rather than send it back. The canvas was finished on 15 February 1613 and shipped to Florence soon afterwards, and it is still there, in the Sala dei Pappagalli of the Royal Apartments, hanging next to Pourbus's portrait of the widow.