Le Roi Savant

LE ROI SAVANT Acrylic on Canvas | 16" × 24" | 2020

The Learned King. He has been waiting to be found.

Le Roi Savant is a portrait of authority that has nothing left to prove — a bearded king in a crown of silver and pink gems, his robes black and scattered with acid yellow dots that have absolutely no business being there and are completely, magnificently right. His expression is neither stern nor welcoming. It is simply the expression of someone who has seen everything, understood most of it and made peace with the rest.

The ground blazes orange — the orange of ceremony, of fire, of a court that takes its pageantry seriously. A wash of violet at the collar gives way to that extraordinary robe — black, formal, covered in bright chartreuse circles that feel simultaneously medieval and entirely contemporary. Pop art invading a royal portrait. The dots refusing to respect the solemnity of the occasion. The king, for his part, refusing to acknowledge them.

He wears his crown with the ease of someone born to it. The silver catches the orange ground and gives it back as warmth. The gems — painted with careful, jewel-like attention — suggest a treasury, a history, a weight of significance worn lightly by someone with very good posture and excellent reserves of patience.

Le Roi Savant belongs to a long tradition of painted monarchs — Holbein, Velázquez, van Dyck — while owing nothing to any of them. This king is from somewhere else entirely. Somewhere more interesting.

📦 Shipping & Details

• 16" × 24" original acrylic on canvas
• Signed and dated 2020
• Ships carefully packaged — ready to hang
• Certificate of authenticity included

One original. No reproductions. He has been waiting to be found.