Ludmila Komar, Princess of Beauvau-Craon

During his lifetime, Paul Delaroche was as famous as his contemporary Eugène Delacroix. At the age of thirty-five, he was elected to the Institut de France, becoming its youngest member and its first Romantic artist. When not travelling, he stayed in Nice, where his circle of friends included the Princess of Beauvau-Craon. This noblewoman of Polish birth and her sister Delphine played a leading role in the intellectual and fashionable life of Paris. Both adored reading, music (they were close to Chopin) and painting. It was out of affection that the artist painted oval portraits of them (the other one is in a private collection in the United Kingdom). The princess’ poetic, rather languid melancholy is exemplarily Romantic. In its frame of twined roses and sentimental pose, this canvas belongs among the few and outstanding portraits painted by Delaroche.