Portrait of Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, on Horseback

Portrait of Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, on Horseback

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Delafosse

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Carmontelle specialized in strict profile portraits of the French nobility. He made only six etchings himself but many drawings, some of which were reproduced in print by Delafosse and others. In 1763, the date of this print, Carmontelle was appointed lecteur (reader) to a son of the man depicted here in hunting dress. An author as well as a portraitist, Carmontelle became part of the ducal household at the Palais Royale, where he wrote and produced plays and helped to organize a literary salon that lasted eighteen years.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, on HorsebackPortrait of Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, on HorsebackPortrait of Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, on HorsebackPortrait of Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, on HorsebackPortrait of Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, on Horseback

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.