Portrait of the Comte de Paris, as a boy in a white costume, holding a white plumed hat, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, beyond

A study for the portrait of the Comte de Paris painted by Winterhalter in 1842 and sold at Sotheby's, Monaco, 14 December 1996, lot 31, illustrated. The baptism of the Comte de Paris took place in Notre Dame on 2 May 1841. The picture was executed in 1842, probably when the Comte de Paris became the heir of the house of Orléans, at the death of his father.
The painting bears the stencilled crowned letters LPO, probably that of the sitter, Louis-Philippe d'Orléans. The present drawing, which bears the number of Queen Marie-Amélie, the wife of King Louis-Philippe, on the backing board, was probably commissioned by her directly from Winterhalter. Marie-Amélie was the grand-mother of the Comte de Paris and the mother of the Comte's father Ferdinand, duc d'Orléans.
Three years later Winterhalter painted a portrait of the Comte d'Eu, brother of the Comte de Paris, the composition of which is very close to that of the present drawing (R. Ormond and C. Blackett-Ord, Franz Xaver Winterhalter, exhib. cat., National Portrait Gallery, London, 1987, no. 23, illustrated).