A portrait of Léopold I, Duke of Lorraine and of Bar from 1690 to 1729 (holder and staff), was found on a trash can in Nancy in the 1980s. It was by chance that a teacher from the École des Beaux -Arts de Nancy discovered this painting, the painting of which could not even be distinguished.
This professor, also a founding member of the association of Friends of the castle of Lunéville and its museum, undertook a long work of its restoration before discovering, with great surprise, that it was a portrait of Léopold 1is , then in his twenties.
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“This painting is probably part of the official representations of the duke distributed in the duchy in order to make the new sovereign known. Leopold lived his youth in Austria, due to the exile of his father, Duke Charles V, and was only able to recover his duchy after the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 ”, it is stated in Lunéville castle.
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“On the painting found, the young sovereign is represented with his ermine coat on which we can guess embroidered alérions, symbols of Lorraine. He also wears the collar of the Golden Fleece, a heritage of the House of Habsburg to which Leopold is affiliated by his mother. The originality of this portrait comes from the fact that Leopold is represented there in hair, that is to say without his wig, an essential fashion accessory of the time ”.
The Cours Léopold in Nancy, so named since 1852, pays homage to him.
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