This exhibition sets out to compare, through old photographs, the eventful life of the Duke of Aumale and the ambitious reconstruction of the Château de Chantilly that he undertook.
Heir to the Montmorencys and the Condés, Henri d’Orléans Duke of Aumale (1822-1897) inherited the Chantilly estate at the age of eight. Like Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Duke of Aumale took an interest in photography, which appeared in 1839 and posed in 1848 in front of the best photographers of his time, including his classmate and friend Viscount Vigier.
Before having the architect Daumet rebuild his Château de Chantilly in 1875, mutilated since the Revolution, he commissioned photographic coverage of the site by the photographer Claudius Couton from Auvergne.
After the reconstruction, he entrusted in 1885 Alphonse Chalot, a child of Chantilly, the photograph the castle and the park. His nascent interest in photography led him to build up an important collection of photographs of Chantilly before and after its reconstruction.
As part of the bicentenary of the birth of the Duke of Aumale (1822-1897), donor of Chantilly to the Institut de France.
Le duc d’Aumale et Chantilly : Photographies du XIXe siècle
October 15, 2022 – February 26, 2023
Château de Chantilly
Exposition au Cabinet d’arts graphiques
www.chateaudechantilly.fr
