Portret van Karel van Orléans c. 1832 - 1887

Ferdinand Delannoy made this engraving of Charles of Orléans in the 19th century. This print is one of many that depicts a historical figure, Charles, Duke of Orléans, who lived in the 15th century. Delannoy was a 19th-century artist who specialized in portrait miniatures, a popular art form at the time, that was collected in albums and sometimes framed. It is worth considering the social context in which Delannoy created this print. France in the 19th century was a nation grappling with its identity after the French Revolution, and this can be seen in the romanticism, as well as the taste for medievalism, of the art being produced at the time. It is in this context that we can appreciate the public role of art and the politics of imagery. Examining historical records such as letters, diaries, and other primary sources, in addition to other works of art from this period may shed even more light on the social conditions that shaped its production.