Joaquín Díez (documented between 1856 and 1882), painter; C. Manigaud, engraver.
Louise d'Orléans, Queen of Belgium (1812-1850)

Louise d'Orléans, Queen of Belgium (1812-1850)
Louise Marie-Thérèse Charlotte Elisabeth d'Orléans (Palermo 1812 - Ostend 1850) was Princess of France by her father's accession to the French throne in 1830, and Queen consort of the Belgians by her marriage to King Leopold I of Belgium. She was the daughter of the marriage between Louis Philippe I of France and Marie Amélie de Bourbon-Two Sicilies. On her father's side, she was the granddaughter of Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, and on her mother's side, the granddaughter of Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies. She held the title of Princess of France when her father became King of France in 1830. For diplomatic reasons, she married Leopold I, King of Belgium, in 1832. Of the four children born of this marriage, the future Leopold II, who succeeded his father on the throne, and Maria Charlotte (1840-1927), Empress of Mexico, wife of Maximilian I of Mexico, stand out.

The Queen of the Belgians is shown standing in a room that could be her office. Her right hand rests on a handwritten letter signed by her, next to a writing tablet and a candlestick. The print is modelled on a painted drawing by Joaquín Díez (documented between 1856 and 1882), a Spanish Romantic painter specialising in landscapes and genre scenes who was appointed a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Seville in 1872.

Both the hairstyle and the clothing of the Belgian queen, with a dress rich in lace, must be related to the outstanding full-length portrait painted in 1841 by the German master Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873). Print, 1851. In the centre, above "INSTITUT DES BEAUX-ARTS"; in the centre, below "LOUISE D'ORLEANS / Reine des Belges"; Signed in plate, lower left corner "J. Diez delt; below "GRAVÉE PAR C MANIGAUD"; towards the right "BRUXELLES 1851. 24E PUBLICATION"; at lower right corner, dry stamp "INSTITUT / DES / DES / BEAUX ARTS / DE / BRUXELLES"; lower centre "Imprimée par CHARDON Jeune 8 FILS, 3, Rue Rheine Paris".

Measurement:

40 x 52 cm