The sitter was the eldest son of King Louis Philippe I (see lots 424 and 425) and Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily (see previous lot). He was born in Palermo during his parents' exile. He married, in 1837, Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (see next lot) and they had two boys: Prince Philippe, Count of Paris and Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres The sitter was a distinguished patron of the arts and filled his vast apartments in the Tuileries Palace with medieval and Renaissance objects, majolica, Chinese and Japanese porcelain and French furniture by craftsmen such as Oeben, Riesener, and Jacob. He died tragically in a carriage accident in which he was thrown from the vehicle at Sablonville between Paris and Neuilly-sur-Seine.
Another version of the present miniature is in the collections of the House of Orange-Nassau, see K. Schaffers-Bodenhausen and M. Tiethoff-Spliethoff, The Portrait Miniatures in the Collections of the House of Orange-Nassau, Zwolle, 1993, p. 235, no. 243, illustrated in colour.