Portrait of Louis-Philippe-Albert d'Orléans, Count of Paris
Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873) · 1842
A small boy of about three stands in front of a red velvet throne chair, in a white silk satin and lace costume, holding a large hat with white ostrich plumes in one hand and resting the other on the seat. Behind him, past the red hanging, the towers of Notre-Dame de Paris rise against the sky. He is Louis-Philippe-Albert d'Orléans, comte de Paris, born in August 1838, first grandson of King Louis-Philippe and second in line to the throne. Winterhalter paints the satin, the lace, the carpet and the child's fair hair with the glossy, effortless brush that made him the favourite portraitist of every court in Europe.
The portrait was commissioned in 1841 to commemorate the boy's baptism in the cathedral on the second of May that year, and it was exhibited at the Salon of 1842 as the property of his father, the duc d'Orléans, whose own portrait by Ingres hangs in this room. The father died in a carriage accident that July, and the picture passed to the widowed duchess and the Orléans family. The canvas came to the Louvre in 2024 as a temporary deposit, the newest arrival in this gallery.
Did You Know? The white satin christening outfit the boy wears still exists, in the museum of the château d'Eu.
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