Imaginary Polish King

The character portayed in this picture is the leading role of a play called Wenceslas. This play, written by Jean de Rotrou (1609-1650), takes place at the Polish court, a popular topic around the middle of the seventeenth century, as the King of Poland had just married a French princess.

This drama, involving a fictitious King Wenceslas and his two sons, Ladislas and Alexander, was performed at the Comédie-Française in 1857. It failed to achieve any considerable success.