Portrait of Henri de Lorraine, duc de Guise, called Le Balafré (1550-1588), full-length, in black doublet and hose with a white ruff, a lace kerchief in his right hand, a dog sitting at his side

There is a full-length portrait of de Guise by Pourbus, to which this picture is clearly related, in the collection of the Earl Spencer, Althorp Park, Northamptonshire (for which, see note to lot 32). The composition of that picture differs mainly in its presentation of the sitter as standing full-face to the viewer, rather than at the slight angle in the present portrait, and in the duc's right hand resting on a draped table, rather than a chair. The angled stance of the sitter was his preferred image, as it disguised the scar on his cheek, gained at the Battle of Dormans in 1575, that gave him his nickname of Le Balafré. In both pictures the subject is represented next to his dog, possibly a compositional allusion to the famous Portrait of the Emperor Charles V with a hound by Titian (Madrid, Prado).

The elder son of François 1er, duc de Guise and Anna d'Este, Henri de Guise was born in 1550. As might have been expected of the heir to one of the greatest houses in France, he was a central figure in the Wars of Religion that engulfed his country in the second half of the sixteenth century. The leader of the Catholic League, he is perhaps best known to posterity as the instigator of the Saint Bartholomew's Eve Massacre in August 1572. This strongly anti-Huguenot stance gained him great popularity in France, particularly given the unpopularity of the King, Henri III. After his success against the Protestants at Auneau, he staked his claim to the French throne, leading Henri III to have him murdered in Blois in 1588.