Lot Essay
The duc de Bordeaux, also called comte de Chambord, was the only son of the duc de Berry. He was born in Septemeber 1820 seven months after his father having been assassinated. The duc de Berry was married for 4 years to Caroline of Bourbon, daughter of Francis I, King of the Two Sicilies. The duc de Berry was the second son of the duc d'Artois, the younger brother of King Louis XVI and King Louis XVIII. The duc d'Artois was to succeed his brother in 1824 as King Charles X. As both King Louis XVI and King Louis XVIII died without a male heir and as the duc d'Angoulême, the elder son of King Charles X, had no children, the duc de Bordeaux became at his birth the Bourbon heir of the French crown. It was at Chambord that the last chance to restore monarchy was given, however Comte de Chambord rejected the offer on the ground that he could not accept any other colours than white and gold, the pre-revolutionary colours. He died in 1883.
The present drawing must be part of a cycle of compositions commissioned by the French crown to illustrate the presentation of the new heir to the French people. Part of the same cycle is a picture by Charles Lafont of the Presentation of the duc de Berry to the People and the Army in September 1820, shown at the Salon of 1822. The picture is now in Versailles, C. Constans, Musée National du Château de Versailles, Les Peintures, Paris, 1995, no. 2891, illustrated.
The present drawing must be part of a cycle of compositions commissioned by the French crown to illustrate the presentation of the new heir to the French people. Part of the same cycle is a picture by Charles Lafont of the Presentation of the duc de Berry to the People and the Army in September 1820, shown at the Salon of 1822. The picture is now in Versailles, C. Constans, Musée National du Château de Versailles, Les Peintures, Paris, 1995, no. 2891, illustrated.