The Health of the King. Florent Joseph Marie Willems
Five gentlemen, grouped around a table, toast the King. One page is replenishing a wine glass while another stands in attendance. Set in a Renaissance chimney piece in the right background is a marble bust of Henri IV of France. The wall at the left is covered with crimson fabric decorated with fleurs-de-lys and emblazoned with the arms of France and Navarre. Discernible on the lace-covered table is a Chinese pheasant that is being served in its skin. A large copper wine cooler dominates the right foreground.
circa 1861
oil on panel (mahogany)
Height: 31.8 cm (12.5 in). Width: 41 cm (16.1 in).
Walters Art Museum
Accession number 37.50
Place of creation Spain
Object history
Duc de Morny Collection [date and mode of acquisition unknown]
Duc de Morny Sale, Paris, May 31, 1865, no. 35 (?)
Goupil et Cie [date and mode of acquisition unknown]
Knoedler and Co. [date and mode of acquisition unknown]
William T. / Henry Walters Collection, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]
1931: bequeathed to Walters Art Museum by Henry Walters
Exhibition history
Free Exhibition of New Pictures. Knoedler & Co., New York. 1866.
Salute to Belgium, Walters Art Gallery, 1980 Commons-logo.svg
Artful Dining: The Exhibition. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1994.
Credit line Acquired by William T. or Henry Walters
Inscriptions [Signature] Lower right: F. Williems; [Signature] Reverse center: F. Williems; [Stencil] Paris stenciled effaced; [Number] In pencil: No. 12; [Number] In black crayon: G 1677
