Lot Essay
Louis-Philippe visited Windsor in 1844. The French King was greatly impressed by Windsor Castle and much admired the State Apartments in which he was placed. The Apartments had been built for Charles II by Hugh May, and decorated with paintings by Verrio and wood-carvings by Grinling Gibbons.
Louis-Philippe admired everything, from the view from the North Terrace to the splendour of the art treasures, the Queen wrote 'He is enchanted with the Castle, and repeated to me again and again (as did also all his people) how delighted he was to be here'. Louis-Philippe's investiture with the Order of the Garter, which was placed on his leg by Prince Albert, pleased Louis-Philippe, more than anything else, for until he received this honour he said he did not feel he belonged to the 'club' of European sovereigns.
The French King endeared himself to the Queen through his evident respect for Prince Albert and amazed her with reminiscences of his life in exile, when he taught under an assumed name in a Swiss School for twenty pence a day (see H. and A. Gernsheim, Queen Victoria, 1959, p.49.)
The present watercolour is a variant of the watercolour by Haghe in the Royal Collection (repr. H. and A. Gernsheim, op.cit., pl.91) and also differs from that belonging to the Comte de Paris, exhib. Paris, Archives Nationales, Louis-Philippe, 1973-4, no.454.
Louis-Philippe admired everything, from the view from the North Terrace to the splendour of the art treasures, the Queen wrote 'He is enchanted with the Castle, and repeated to me again and again (as did also all his people) how delighted he was to be here'. Louis-Philippe's investiture with the Order of the Garter, which was placed on his leg by Prince Albert, pleased Louis-Philippe, more than anything else, for until he received this honour he said he did not feel he belonged to the 'club' of European sovereigns.
The French King endeared himself to the Queen through his evident respect for Prince Albert and amazed her with reminiscences of his life in exile, when he taught under an assumed name in a Swiss School for twenty pence a day (see H. and A. Gernsheim, Queen Victoria, 1959, p.49.)
The present watercolour is a variant of the watercolour by Haghe in the Royal Collection (repr. H. and A. Gernsheim, op.cit., pl.91) and also differs from that belonging to the Comte de Paris, exhib. Paris, Archives Nationales, Louis-Philippe, 1973-4, no.454.