Princess Marie of Orléans (1813–1839)

Princess Marie Christine Caroline Adélaïde Françoise Léopoldine of France ( born April 12, 1813 in Palermo, † January 2, 1839 in Pisa) was a French princess, who was by marriage to the Duchess of Württemberg.

Family

Marie Christine was the second daughter of the French King and Queen Louis Philippe and Maria Amalia. On October 17, 1837 Catholic princess married the Protestant Duke Alexander of Württemberg. Although her husband was only the representative of a less significant sidelines of a German royal family, yet he was by means of his father, Alexander Friedrich Karl von Württemberg a nephew of King Frederick I of Württemberg and his mother Antoinette of Saxe- Coburg -Saalfeld, a nephew King Leopold I of Belgium. Would Marie Christine got only one child, born on July 30, 1838 Duke Philipp of Württemberg, who founded the Catholic line of the House of Württemberg and his son Albrecht of Württemberg in 1921 and ascended King of Württemberg Chief of the total house become, if not the 1918 November Revolution had taken place.

Biography

Marie Christine, who was interested in since her youth literature and history, was a musically very gifted princess, who wrote his own poetry and prose and operated also in the musical field, especially in the visual arts. As a student of the artist Ary Scheffer she discovered her passion for sculpture. So she sat in the Tuileries Palace own studio, where she modeled many works of art. Even today, bronze casts of various statues of Joan of Arc 's birthplace in Domremy before their la Pucelle and front of City Hall in New Orleans to Marie Christine's artistic work. As a representative of the nobility, she found it still difficult to establish themselves in the art world. From their works of art has survived not much, most went through the looting of Tuilerienpalastes during the revolution of 1848 lost.

In 1834 was initially planned, Marie Christine to marry a younger brother of King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. The King of the Two Sicilies gave his consent to the marriage with Prince Leopold Benjamin of Syracuse (1813-1860), who as he came even to the second marriage of his father Francis I with Maria Isabel of Spain. Because of the unrest that emerged in France in April 1834, the Court of the Two Sicilies in Naples made ​​the wedding dependent on Marie Christine their total heritage should bring into the marriage in advance. An examination of that asset by the French court eventually led to the end of the marriage project.

1837 came at the initiative of the Belgian King Leopold to the marriage with Duke Alexander of Württemberg. The wedding ceremony took place on October 18, 1837 in the Grand Trianon at Versailles instead. The civil marriage was made by the French chancellor Étienne- Denis Pasquier, the Catholic wedding ceremony by the Bishop of Versailles and the evangelical pastor by Cuvier. During the following days, a number of receptions of the French royal couple for the wedding even took place.

Marie Christine came on a trip with her husband, who led them to the courts of German princes, in mortal danger, as in Gotha - the residence of Duke Ernst I. and Duchess Marie Antoinette (1799-1860), the sister of Alexander - the palace burnt down in which the young couple lived. This large fire in the middle of winter, the Marie Christine almost fell victim to might have been the cause for the onset of lung disease of the Duchess. It is possible that poor health was further impaired by the birth of his son Philip in the summer of 1838.

In the fall of 1838 Duchess Marie Christine of Württemberg went with the small son to Italy in the hope that the milder climate would favor the healing of their tuberculosis. However, she died of the disease shortly after the turn of the year 1839 in the Palazzo Vitelli in Pisa. It has been in the Chapelle royale Saint -Louis in Dreux, the grave laying of the House of Orleans, buried.

Work

Among the sculptural works of Marie -Christine d' Orléans are:

• The relief of the Resurrection of the poets, French La Resurrection du poète, from 1834, the original plaster is preserved by the Musée Condé in Chantilly;
• The statue of praying Joan of Arc French Jeanne d'Arc debout priant exist from the year 1837. The marble original from which numerous copies, is located in the Palace of Versailles. The bronze version of this work on the platform of the former Hôtel Groslot, now the town hall of Orléans, was a gift from King Louis -Philippe of Orléans. It has holes and bumps, traces of the Second World War;
• The equestrian statue of the weeping Joan of Arc, French Joan of Arc à cheval à la vue d'un pleurant Anglais blessé, which can be seen in the wedding hall of the Hôtel de Ville d' Orléans and the Musée Condé, Chantilly.