Louis of France (1661–1711) was the eldest son of Louis XIV. As the heir apparent, he was named dauphin, and later Grand Dauphin to distinguish him from his own son. Louis died of smallpox four years before his father and never reigned as king.

Like the adjacent portrait of the young duke of Berry, this engraving was based on a painting by the fashionable portraitist François de Troy. The corner emblems employ the solar symbolism omnipresent at Versailles to illustrate the symbiotic relationship between the dauphin and his father, the “Sun King.”