Victoire, duchesse de Nemours (14 February 1822, Vienna - 10 December 1857, Claremont House), born Princess Victoria Franziska Antonia Juliane Luise of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, daughter of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Maria Antonia Koháry de Csábrág. She was first cousins with both Queen Victoria - with whom she was very close - and Prince Albert, as well as with the future Belgian king, Leopold II, and his sister, Empress Carlota of Mexico.
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With its heavy craquelure and extremely discolored varnish, this painting has fared far worse than most Winterhalters; in general, his work has
aged very well. I suspect there has been some overpainting - especially on the face - in an effort to temporarily "clean up" this portrait. One can
only hope that a full conservation/restoration has been carried out on the painting since this image was taken. |
In 1840, she married Louis, duc de Nemours (25 October 1814, Paris - 26 June 1896, Versailles), born Prince Louis Charles Philippe Raphaël d'Orléans, second son of Louis-Philippe King of the French. They had three children before the coming of the revolution of 1848 and the fall of the monarchy
, at which point they fled to England and settled with his parents at Claremont House in Surrey. Nine years later, the couple had a fourth child, but the duchesse died two months after her daughter's birth. She was thirty-five. Her husband would die at the age of eighty-one, having outlived his wife by thirty-nine years.
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| Even obscured by the badly discolored varnish, Winterhalter's rendering of the lace is exquisite. |
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| The marriage of the duc and duchesse de Nemours, the Château de Saint-Cloud, 27 April 1840. Painting by Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux. |
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| Copy of another portrait of the duchesse by Winterhalter, circa 1840; the original is in an oval format. |
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| The duchesse in England in 1852, with her two sons, Gaston, comte d'Eu, and Ferdinand, duc d'Alençon. |
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| Winterhalter's double portrait, called "The Cousins": the duchesse de Nemours and Queen Victoria, 1852. |
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| The duchesse de Nemours on her deathbed, 1857. |
I've never understood the death photographs the Victorians loved so much. creepy!! That first portrait is just exquisite despite the varnish. Luminous even and I love the detailing in the jewelry. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the death photographs, Stefan. Even though I've included a couple in posts along the way, I always feel rather squeamish about it; they're really just too intimate.
DeleteThe ugliest hairstyle ever.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, it has a lot of competition down through the centuries. Even only going back a decade, to the 1830s... yikes!
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