[1] Louis XVIII was the younger brother of Louis XVI, who had been guillotined during the French Revolution; he spent many years in exile and returned to France from England following the 1814 downfall of Napoleon and the First Restoration.

Gérard rushed to complete the painting for the Salon of 1814 in Paris, the first of the restored monarchy.

The seated position was unusual and Gérard aimed for a greater degree of naturalism.

[2] Gérard's contemporaries Antoine-Jean Gros and Robert Lefèvre both also depicted the king in his robes.

In the event Louis XVIII never had a coronation ceremony, and the first and last of the Bourbon restoration was that of his brother Charles X, in 1825.