A FRENCH GILT BRONZE EQUESTRIAN GROUP OF LOUIS D'ORLÉANS

A FRENCH GILT BRONZE EQUESTRIAN GROUP OF LOUIS D'ORLÉANS

BY EMMANUEL FRÉMIET (1824-1910)

the Duke depicted as knight, the naturalistic base signed 'E. Fremiet' on a green marble stepped plinth

46.8cm high, 40cm long

Provenance

The contents of The Grange, Wendover.

Catalogue Note

This bronze is a reduction of the statue of Louis d'Orléans équestre commissioned by the French State for the courtyard of the Château de Pierrefonds in 1869. As the youngest son of King Charles V of France, Louis d'Orléans (1372-1407) received by royal prerogative the Duchy of Touraine and to strengthen his territory built a fortress at Pierrefonds. Besieged in the 17th century and left as a romantic ruin for two centuries, the Château de Pierrefonds was a cause célèbre of Napoleon III who pursued a program of restoration that was subsumed by the creation of an Imperial Residence which leaves the château today very much a 19th century imagining of a medieval castle.