3-016-268 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Duke of Orleans showing his Lover, 1825. A passage in the Histoire des ducs de Borgogne by Barante describes how the Duke of Orléans displayed the naked body of his lover Mariette d’Enghien, wife of his former chamberlain Aubert le Flamenc, to her husband, concealing her face. Her husband failed to recognize her. Together with Barante’s text another more detailed one has been mentioned, which the artist may have used as his source. This is Les vies de dames galantes by Brântome, republished in 1822, two years before Barante’s text. In Brântome’s description the Duke of Orléans shows his lover to her husband, concealing her face with a sheet.