Portrait of Louis Philippe Albert d'Orléans, Count of Paris (1838-1894)

Start with the chair. It is a gilded armchair in the style of Louis XIV, covered in crimson velvet with a gold fringe, and it stands far taller than the little boy resting his right hand on it. He is Philippe, Count of Paris, eldest grandson of King Louis-Philippe of France, and the portrait was ordered for his baptism at Notre-Dame on 2 May 1841. That is why the towers of the cathedral rise behind him, and why he wears a suit of silk satin and lace made for the ceremony. Winterhalter signed the canvas in 1842 and showed it at the Salon that spring. In July the boy's father, the Duke of Orléans, died in a carriage accident, and the child became heir to the throne. In February 1848 his grandfather abdicated in his favour, and on the same day a provisional government proclaimed the republic. The Count of Paris never reigned. The painting stayed in the Orléans family until 1996, and since 2024 it has hung in the Louvre on deposit from the American Friends of the Louvre. The baptism suit survives at the Château d'Eu in Normandy, though the hat with white ostrich plumes that he holds here is lost.