People in rooms I

Louis-Philippe, duc de Valois, au berceau, by Nicolas Bernard Lépicié, 1774.

The duc de Chartres (later the duc d'Orléans, later still known as Philippe Égalité) gazes at his first-born son, one day to be King Louis-Philippe.

Lépicié has also included a portrait of the Orléans' young black servant, Scipion.

Die Sentimentale, by Johann Peter Hasenclever, circa 1846-47.

The family of Arent Anthoni Roukens, by Willem Joseph Laquy, 1786.

 The battle-painter, Jørgen Sonne, in his studio, by Ditlev Blunck, circa 1826.

The baptism of Princess Beatrice in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace, 16 June 1857, by Egron Sellif Lundgren, 1857.

Princess Beatrice was the youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, portrayed here surrounded by their other children.

The child's godparents were her maternal grandmother, the Duchess of Kent; her eldest sister; and the latter's fiancé, Prince Friedrich of Prussia.

Marriage of Léopold I, King of the Belgians, and Louise d’Orléans, Château de Compiègne, 9 August 1832, by Joseph-Désiré Court, circa 1832.

Princess Louise was the eldest daughter of Louis-Philippe and Queen Marie Amélie.

Two ladies and an officer seated at tea, unknown artist, circa 1715.

The Art Gallery of Jan Gildemeester, by Adriaan de Lelie, circa 1794-95.

Among the many paintings covering the walls, one of the most noticeable is Gerard ter Borch's Woman Reading a Letter.

***

Bonus: Lépicié's sketch of the infant duc de Valois, a study for the painting at the beginning of this post.

The Four Ages of Man - paintings by Ditlev Blunck, 1840-1845

Childhood.

Youth.

Maturity.

Old Age.

***

Childhood - detail.

Youth - detail.

Maturity - detail.

***

Ditlev Conrad Blunck (22 June 1798, Münsterdorf, Schleswig-Holstein – 7 January 1853, Hamburg), Danish painter associated with the artistic blossoming now known as the Danish Golden Age. In 1814, at the age of sixteen, he began studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. At the same time, along with his friend Wilhelm Bendz, he received training from Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg. Four years later he moved to Munich and enrolled in the Academy there. He remained in Munich until 1820, when he returned to Copenhagen. Under the influence of a new professor, J. L. Lund, Blunck focused on history painting during the early years of his career. Later, that focus changed to genre painting, and for that he is best remembered. From 1828 he spent much time in Germany - Berlin, Munich, Dresden - and came in contact with some of the most influential artists of the day. He also traveled to Rome during the 1830s, where he joined the group of Danish artists who surrounded the celebrated sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, and where he painted some of his major works. Back in Denmark in 1841, the threat of scandal and/or prosecution related to his homosexuality caused him to leave the country suddenly; he never returned. He died in Germany at the age of fifty-four.

These four paintings form a series and were commissioned by King Christian VIII of Denmark. Produced during this time of personal upheaval in the first half of the 1840s, they are examples of  Blunck’s mature style, one which was influenced by the “Nazarenes”, a group of primarily German artists who wished to convey "earnest" sentiments in their work in contrast, they felt, to the “exteriority” typified by French art of the time. These paintings make an interesting contrast with those featured in my recent post on Thomas Cole's "The Voyage of Life" of 1842: four paintings on the same subject, painted during the same few years. 

 A Young Artist Examining a Sketch in a Mirror, Wilhelm Bendz' well-known image of his friend, Ditlev Blunck, 1826.

Weirdness in a lady's bed

Mareridtscene (nightmare scene), by Ditlev Blunck, 1846.

The Nightmare, by John Henry Fuseli (Johann Heinrich Füssli), 1781.

Sleeping Venus with Cupido, by Godfried Schalcken, before 1685.

The Nightmare, by John Henry Fuseli (Johann Heinrich Füssli), 1790-91. A variation on the painting of 1781.

Danaë and the Shower of Gold, by Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller, 1787.

Title unknown, by Richard Tennant Cooper, circa first quarter of the twentieth century.

Though the title is unknown, going by the artist's other work, this is most likely a "lesson" on venereal disease.

La liseuse de romans (The reader of novels), by Antoine Wiertz, 1853.