Lot 59: SALOMON-GUILLAUME COUNIS (SWISS, 1784-1859) AND JEAN-BAPTISTE-JOSEPH DUCHESNE (FRENCH, 1770-1856)

Marie-Caroline, Duchess of Berry (1798-1870), in black dress with ruffled lace at corsage, black gauze falling from white ruffled lace cap; Henry, Duke of Bordeaux (1820-1883), as a child, in white dress with pearl buttons at corsage, short fair hair; Charles-Ferdinand, Duke of Berry (1778-1820), in dark green uniform with yellow collar, black stock and white collar, silver cross sash, aiguillettes and epaulette, decorated with the badges of the Royal French Orders of Saint-Louis and the Lily and with the blue moiré sash of the Royal French Order of the Holy Ghost
she signed 'Counis' (mid-right) and signed and dated in full on the counter-enamel 'S.A.R. Caroline de Sicile. D s s e. de Berri Counis f t. 1820.'; the Duke of Bordeaux signed 'Duchesne' (mid-left) and signed and dated in full on the counter-enamel 'henri charles ferdinand Marie dieu Donné Duc de Bordeaux J.B.J. Duchesne. 1824.'; and the Duke of Berry signed 'Duchesne' (mid-left) and signed and dated in full on the counter-enamel 'charles ferdinand Duc de Berry JB.J. Duchesne de Gisors Paris 1820.'
enamels on copper
ovals, 1 5/8 in. (34 mm.) high, gilt-metal hinged mounts surmounted by the sitters' Christian names in Gothic script and joined by pierced foliate decoration set into a rectangular lapis-lazuli plaque, with stamped foliate ormolu surround

Marie Caroline de Berri; Naples, Paris, Graz, Itinéraire d'une Princesse Romantique, Paris, 2002, p. 144, illustrated in colour, p. 139. fig. 48 and p. 145, fig. 51.

with Galerie Kugel, Paris, 2004.

Charles-Ferdinand de Bourbon, Duke of Berry was born in 1778, second son of the Count of Artois (see lot 94) and his wife, Princess Maria Teresa of Savoy. He emigrated with his parents in 1789 and fought against the Revolutionary troops. In 1801 he settled in England and married Amy Brown with whom he had two daughters. His family did not recognise this union and they forced him to marry Marie-Caroline of Bourbon-Sicilies in 1816. After the birth of a daughter in 1819, the Duke of Berry was murdered in 1820 by a saddler named Louis Pierre Louvel, who wanted to extinguish the Bourbon line. Seven months later, the young duke was born and referred to as 'l'enfant du miracle' and given the title of Duke of Bordeaux, but was later known as the Count of Chambord. His grandfather, Charles X, abdicated in his favour during the Revolution of 1830 and Henry accompanied Charles and his mother into exile. Marie-Caroline returned to France in secret two years later to organise an uprising against Louis-Philippe and attempted to win the throne for her son. Her followers were defeated and, after five months in hiding, she was found and imprisoned. The Count of Chambord spent most of his life at Frohsdorf, Austria where he died without issue and his claims passed to the House of Bourbon-Orléans.
The portrait of the Duchess is a part copy of the large scale oil portrait by François-Joseph Kinson of 1820 depicting her together with her daughter (Versailles, Musée National du Château, inv. MV 7091). Duchesne's portrait of the Duke is after a miniature by Jean-Baptiste-Jacques Augustin, signed 'Augustin 1 e r Peintre du Roi. 1820.', sold Christie's, London, 15 April 1997, lot 170.
Two further versions of the Ducal couple by Counis and Duchesne are recorded in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Bordeaux, and in the Rolex-Wilsdorf Collection, Geneva, but this lot appears to be the only example in which they are united with their son.

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