This is a portrait of my grandfather Jean of Orléans, the future Duke of Guise, found entirely by chance when googling the castles belonging to the family.
He is here shown with his eldest sister, Marguerite of Orléans, who, being a princess of France, married the son of the first president of the 3rd Republic, Mac Mahon, Duke of Magenta.
This portrait is by Gabriel Ferrier, 1880 and is entitled, “Marriage of the Princess Anne of France”.
I was immediately intrigued by this portrait; I was strangely fascinated by something that comes out in the picture: the fact that many of the Duke’s descendants, beginning with my grandchildren, bear a strange resemblance to him: we have all inherited his droopy eyes.