Portrait of Ferdinand-Philippe, Duke of Orléans
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) · 1842
Ferdinand-Philippe, duc d'Orléans, eldest son of King Louis-Philippe and heir to the throne, stands in three-quarter view, cut just below the knee, in the plain uniform of a lieutenant general: dark blue coat, gold epaulettes, red and gold sash, red trousers and white gloves. His plumed hat is tucked under one arm and his other hand rests on the pommel of his sword. He wears the crosses of the Legion of Honour and of the Belgian Order of Leopold. Curled hair, a moustache and a narrow beard frame a face of thirty-one, and an inscription painted on the wall at the right gives his name and the date, April 1842.
The prince commissioned the portrait from Ingres in 1840 for his own household, at fifteen thousand francs, and it was finished in April 1842. Three months later, on the thirteenth of July, he was killed when he jumped from his runaway carriage at Neuilly, and the picture became the official image of the lost heir. It stayed with his widow, his son and their descendants until 1986, was declared a national treasure in 2005 and entered the Louvre that year thanks to the patronage of the insurance group AXA.
Did You Know? The prince died in a carriage accident three months after the portrait was finished, and it became his official memorial image.
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