Like this?'
http://www.myinterestingfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Louis-XIV-Wig.jpg
Aside from the French Revolution, I haven't read much of France's history. Anyone know how accurate this is, historically?
shareWigs became fashionable when Louis XIII started losing his hair in 1624 and then his son Louis XIV promoted the trend when his own hairline began to recede. In the tv series, what we see is their actual hair (yes, the cast wore wigs but they serve the purpose of natural looking hair).
I assume as the years go by we'll see them wear elaborate wigs.
Sounds like the big wigs are coming later.
Humankind cannot bear very much reality. ~T.S. Eliot
Not at this stage. They got taller and fuller later in the century, by the 1680s.
"Active but Odd"
That said, the real Louis's hair was much fuller than shown on TV, even at this time. This is a portrait dated to 1661:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France#/media/File:Louis-xiv-lebrunl.jpg
Not high, but still decidedly big hair. I'm assuming this is a wig... but I'm not 100% sure. Similarly, I'm never sure when I look at paintings of, say, Charles II or Prince Rupert, exactly when the real hair has been replaced by a wig. In the following Peter Lely painting, 1665, is this the future James II's real hair or a wig?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/James_II%2C_when_Duke_of_York_-_Lely_c._1665.jpg
And since I see that the TV story begins in 1667, here is Louis XIV in 166, in a fabulous engraving by Robert Nanteuil:
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/robert-nanteuil-louis-xiv-6/download/robert-nanteuil-louis-xiv-1666.jpg
In La Mort de Louis XIV due out later this year, they don't stint on the wigs:
http://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2016/05/thumb_1502_film_main_big-h_2016.jpg
Call me Ishmael...
I think a "portrait" of Louis, commissioned by him, would be painted in the way he insisted it be done. It's like that flap of hair on Donald Trump's forehead. We all know that's not real, but centuries from now, that is what people will call historical accuracy.
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