A fragment of an antique sarcophagus representing Bacchus and Ariadne was acquired for 7,200 francs at the Nolivos Sale and is exhibited now in the Salle Minerve along with the above-mentioned statuettes and some charming Tanagra figures.
On the death of his mother, Queen Marie Amélie, the Duc d’Aumale inherited a great many family portraits and miniatures, the most noteworthy among these being a life-size portrait of Gaston d’Orléans by Van Dyck, of which there is a replica in the Radnor Collection. This painting was given to Louis Philippe by George IV and was probably painted at the request of Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, who was a sister of the Royal sitter. There is not the slightest resemblance in his features to the good King Henri IV, his father. Treachery lurks in his mouth and eyes, and we cannot help being reminded that he was the direct cause of the execution of the last Montmorency.
From the same source came a portrait of Queen Marie Amélie herself, painted by Gérard in 1817, and likenesses of the same Queen and two of her daughters by Vigée Le Brun; a portrait of Louis Philippe as Duc d’Orléans, when professor at Reichenau, by Winterhalter; and others of Philippe Egalité and his charming wife, a daughter of the Duc de Penthièvre, and of the Duc d’Aumale as a child by Robert Fleury. Most of the gems and miniatures are likewise from the collection of Queen Marie Amélie; and to the miniatures, in course of time, were added others of members of the Royal Family of France bought by the Duke himself, such as of Anne de Bretagne, François I, Gabrielle d’Estrées and her two sons, Henri II, Henri IV, and Sully, the famous Minister of Finance; of the Duc de Guise (le Balafré), Marie de Medicis, Marie Thérèse, Queen of Louis XIV, the Grand Dauphin and his wife Marie Anne of Bavaria, and many more.
In 1865 Mr. Colnaghi sold to the Duke Meissonier’s Les Dragons sous Louis XV and a landscape by S. W. Reynolds, who is best known as an engraver. The charming portrait of Maria, Lady Waldegrave with her Daughter by Sir Joshua, was bequeathed to the Duke by Frances, Countess of Waldegrave; and Lord Holland in 1860 presented him with Talleyrand’s portrait by Ary Scheffer. From Sir Charles Robinson the Duc d’Aumale acquired some fine Italian manuscripts, and an interesting Rheno-Byzantine painting representing the Emperor Otto I seated between two allegorical female figures, each holding a small globe signifying the vassal states of the Empire. This painting, which is of considerable historical value, is apparently a detached portion of a MS. illuminated for the Emperor about the year 1000. From the same source came another fragment, a Resurrection, dating from the fourteenth century and belonging to the Sienese School. This hangs in the Rotonde near a miniature of a Christ on the Cross attributed to Giulio Clovio.
In 1868, two years before his exile was suddenly terminated by the downfall of the second Empire, the Duc d’Aumale bought for the sum of 600,000 francs the collection of the Marquis Maison; and amongst the pictures which formed it were eight Descamps, three Marilhats, one Gros, four Watteaus, four Greuzes and two paintings by Prud’hon. After that followed the acquisition of one of Fromentin’s finest works, La Chasse au Faucon en Algérie; whilst a sea-piece by Vandervelde together with the Dunes at Scheveningen by Ruysdael were bought at the San Donato Sale.
Presently there came the celebrated Vierge de la Maison d’Orléans by Raphael, which the Duke acquired at the Delessert Sale for the sum of 160,000 francs—a fascinating picture supposed to be one of the two panels described by Vasari as having been painted for Guidobaldo di Montefeltro, and of which he says “that they were small but exceedingly beautiful examples of the master’s second manner.”[20] At one time in the possession of Gaston d’Orléans, this charming work passed from France into Flanders at the end of the sixteenth century, where it is supposed to have belonged to David Teniers the Younger. Passavant thought that it was then that the background was repainted and the shelf with the various pots and vases added—a supposition which has, however, since been refuted. The youthful Madonna is seated on a cushioned bench in a small homely room; and behind her hangs a light curtain of reddish grey. She bends tenderly over the Infant Christ, who gazes intently at the spectator with an expression full of feeling and inspiration. This is perhaps the most divine-looking of all Raphael’s Infants. The Bridgewater Madonna, seated on a similar seat in a homely habitation, is closely analogous to the Virgin in this work, but instead of the shelf there is an arched window to the right. The lights in both pictures are subtle and extremely delicate, whilst the shadows are in strongly marked contrast.
In the eighteenth century the Orléans Madonna subsequently returned to France to the house of the well-known collector Crozat, from whence it passed into the Orléans Gallery and obtained thus its distinctive appellation. During the Revolution this entire collection was transported to Brussels, and the Madonna changed hands several times before it finally entered the haven of the Musée Condé.
Plate XXI.