Ritratto di Ferdinando Filippo, duca d'Orléans

Ingres finished this in 1842. The sitter is Ferdinand-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, eldest son of King Louis-Philippe and heir to the French throne, painted at 31 in the confident pose of a man with a long reign ahead of him. A few months later, on a July day, his carriage horses bolted on the road out of Paris. He jumped, fell badly on the pavement, and died within hours. His father was left without a grown heir, and the shaky July Monarchy edged closer to the collapse that finally came in 1848. The grieving family had Ingres and his studio repeat the portrait many times over, so this calm, upright likeness became the official image of a prince who never got to rule.