Ritratto di Ferdinando Filippo d'Orléans

On 13 July 1842 the heir to the French throne jumped from a bolting carriage on the road to Neuilly and died of his injuries hours later. He was 31. Ingres had finished painting him only weeks before, and the portrait turned overnight into a national relic. The royal family ordered copies, and then copies of the copies, for palaces, ministries and themselves. Something like 18 or 19 versions were produced over the following years, in every format from three-quarter length down to the head alone. Specialists reckon only about five came from Ingres's own hand, the rest from his studio or from other painters working to his design. This one carries the date 1844, the year Ingres was paid 10,000 francs for the full-length replica while his assistants traced the outlines of the original onto fresh canvas.