I resolved this by creating an application exe config file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
   <startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy="true">
      <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.0"/>
      <requiredRuntime version="v4.0.20506" />
   </startup>
</configuration>

I still do not know, however, why this was necessary as the application does not have any reference to the old version.