fme_605527 - MARIE DE FRANCE, DUCHESS OF WURTTEMBERG Médaille, Mariage d’Alexandre de Würtemberg et Marie d’Orléans

MARIE DE FRANCE, DUCHESS OF WURTTEMBERG

(1813-1839)

Princess Marie d'Orléans is the second daughter of Louis-Philippe I and his wife Queen Marie-Amélie de Bourbon, Princess of the Two Sicilies. She was born in Palermo on April 12, 1813. On October 17, 1837, Marie d'Orléans married Prince Alexander of Württemberg (1804-1881), son of Alexander of Württemberg and his wife Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. The youngest of a German sovereign family, Alexander is the nephew, through his father, of King Frederick I of Württemberg, and, through his mother, of King Leopold I of the Belgians. In 1838, the Duchess of Württemberg, plagued by pulmonary tuberculosis, left for Pisa in the hope that the climate would favor her recovery. She died on January 6, 1839. She was buried in the royal chapel of Dreux, necropolis of Orleans, on January 27. Pupil of Ary Scheffer, Princess Marie is endowed with a recognized artistic talent which imposes her as the first French romantic woman sculptor. In 2008, the Louvre Museum dedicated the first major exhibition of his works (sculptures and drawings) and personal effects to him..