Portrait Of Gaston d'Orléans, By Claude Deruet And Workshop, Early 17th Century

Portrait of Gaston d'Orléans, brother of Louis XIII, oil on wood panel, dimensions 20 cm x 23 cm, with its superb old frame with stone cabochons 33 cm x 36 cm, by Claude Deruet and his workshop, France beginning of the 17 th Third son of King Henri VI and Marie de Médicis Gaston initially receives the title of Duke of Anjou. The only surviving brother of Louis XIII, he took the title of "Monsieur" from 1611. The first of his many revolts and intrigues against royal authority broke out in 1626, when the powerful Prime Minister of Marie de Médicis and Louis XIII , Cardinal de Richelieu, tries to force him to marry Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier. Several members of the nobility, including the Duchess of Chevreuse and her lover, the Comte de Chalais, encouraged her to refuse this union and lured her into a plot to assassinate Richelieu. The latter discovers the conspiracy and has Chalais beheaded. The Duke of Anjou, heir presumptive to the throne, however, escaped any prosecution. He eventually married Marie de Bourbon in August 1626 and was named Duke of Orléans, becoming the first Duke of the Third House of Orléans. Nine months later, his wife died in childbirth. She gives birth to Anne Marie Louise, known as the Grande Mademoiselle. Claude Deruet born around 1588 in Nancy, where he died in the same city on October 20, 1660, is a Lorraine painter from late mannerism. He had among other pupils Claude Lorrain and for patrons Louis XIII, Richelieu and Henri II of Lorraine, he painted many characters of the Court of France and Lorraine. Our portrait is a very fine example of his art.