Giuseppe Molteni (1800–1867), Portrait of King Leopold I of Belgium and his mistress Arcadie Claret

Giuseppe Molteni (Milan 1800–1867 Milan)
Portrait of King Leopold I of Belgium (1790-1865) and his mistress, Arcadie Claret, Baroness of Eppinghoven (1826-1897) at the Villa Giulia, Lake Como
c.1850
Oil on canvas
23 ½ x 20 in.

Provenance
Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire (according to label verso);
Chaucer Fine Art, 1980s;
Private collection, London;
Where acquired by Whiteman’s Fine Art, 2024.

Literature
Mazzocca, Fernando. Giuseppe Molteni (1800-1867) E Il Ritratto Nella Milano Romantica. Edited by Lavinia M. Galli Michero, Paola Segramora Rivolta, and Museo Poldi-Pezzoli. Milan: Skira, 2000. Page 238.

Catalogue Note

We are grateful to Professor Fernando Mazzocca for his assistance in cataloguing this work.

Whiteman’s Fine Art are pleased to present this reidentified portrait of Leopold I and his mistress, Arcadie Claret, Baroness of Eppinghoven, by the famed Milanese artist Giuseppe Molteni. An important rediscovery for the history of Belgian art, this double portrait represents a significant advancement in the understanding of the personal life of Leopold I. Yet with exceedingly few depictions of reigning monarchs and their maîtresses having survived (their conspicuous absence in royal collections being particularly notable), the present painting also shines new light on the often overlooked but always intriguing sphere of royal mistresses.

This work, which had been later erroneously mistitled as showing Leopold II, in fact depicts King Leopold I of Belgium (1790-1865, reigned 1831-1865) seated in the neoclassical Villa Giulia which he acquired in 1855. Leopold was born Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duke of Saxony. He had a military career fighting against Napoleon and asked to assume the position of King of Belgium in 1831, following his turning down of the Greek Throne in 1830. His reign was famously liberal and marked by economic modernisation and industrialisation.

Leopold is pictured at ease, without state regalia or the emblems of royalty. This compositionally harmonious work depicts Leopold the man, rather than as the king, allowing the viewer a fleeting glance into the private realm of the distinguished leader. Leopold’s gaze is diverted to the right of the image, perhaps admiring the view of Lake Como, as he was recorded as a noted lover of the lake. This work is bathed in the warm light which beams vertically through the work and illuminates the water and informally geometric flooring alike. To Leopold’s side is his mistress, now reidentified as Arcadie Claret. Whereas Leopold’s gaze is diverted, Arcadie steadily returns the look of the viewer. Her eyes are well-defined against pale skin and an elegantly elongated neck. Her dark hair is worn simply in a style which is similar to photographs of her in her later life, including the image taken by François Deron in Brussels (Figure 1) [1]. Her gaze is unassuming but assertive, showing a woman at ease, in a psychological reflection characteristic only of Molteni’s most exceptional works [2].

Despite considerable and sustained scandal, Leopold and Arcadie were involved romantically for at least twenty years until Leopold’s death in 1865. Arcadie has been described as the ‘Great Love’ of King Leopold’s life [3]. This relationship is evident as Molteni’s figures curve gracefully toward each other, and together form a pyramidal arrangement which positions Arcadie Claret as a vertical parallel to the sturdy Doric pilaster- a stabilising and enduring constant behind the King. This linking of figures is further emphasised in the rings which adorn both figures’ left index fingers: gold bands with almost identical dark stones which glint in the light. Further delicate use of light casts highlights across the sumptuous velvet of Arcadie’s dress, pooling into shadow in the lower plane of the work. In turn, this is equalled by the refined delineation of the transparent veil which falls to the bottom right of the image and is characteristic of Molteni’s more refined style from the mid 1840s [4].

Milenese artist Giuseppe Molteni (1800–1867) was perhaps the most highly regarded restorer of the nineteenth century, alongside being a renowned connoisseur and painter in his own right [5]. Molteni worked as the lead restorer at the Pinacoteca di Brera Gallery in Milan, Italy from 1855 and subsequently became its director in 1861. The Brera collection still holds Molteni’s 1845 Mother Mourning the Death of her Child which was shown at the Paris exhibition in 1855 [6]. Molteni’s distinguished career as a restorer was marked by his lauded 1857-8 restoration of Raphael’s Marriage of the Virgin [7]. Further works restored by Molteni can be found in the National Gallery, London [8]. Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, wife of the first director of the National Gallery, wrote that the artist was of “exquisite feeling… skill, charm and wit” and was adored by numerous titled and wealthy friends who could not “live without Molteni” [9].

This exceptional royal portrait exemplifies the late style of Molteni’s career, characterised by subtle psychological insight and richly rendered fabrics. The two figures of a royal and his lover are positioned at ease in the loggia of the Villa Giulia on the shores of Lake Como, bathed in warm light and delicate shadow.

Leopold appears older when compared to the 1856 official state portrait by Nicaise de Keyser in full pomp with the Belgian constitution (Figure 2) [10], evidencing the fact that this work is an unidealized visualisation of a rare moment of leisure in an arcadian setting [11]. The landscape depicted behind Leopold is an exaggerated vision of Lake Como viewed towards Varenna, encapsulating the emphasis on nature in the Italian romanticism of the mid 19th century. Craggy peaks form the horizon over the placid water punctuated by a sailing boat dwarfed by the monumental landscape [12]. The romantic yet sublime picturesque is imbued with the dramatic monumentality which inspired the likes of Wordsworth and Bysshe Shelley [13]. Molteni would have been aware of the 19th century Italian strand of romanticism given his position in intellectual circles in Milan [14]. This work evidences his engagement with the aesthetic and political style of romantic nationalism which would also have been familiar to Leopold, given its place in Belgian culture as well as Italian [15]. The romantic in Italian art is evident in the exhibition La Pittura Lombarda Nel Secolo XIX, featuring four works by Molteni. The catalogue’s preface by Vespasiano Bignami details the philosophical and emotional concerns of the Italian Romantic painters and praises Molteni as a forerunner in the school of poetic painting which was marked by the beauty and vitality which imbues this portrait [16].

This work offers a highly unusual opportunity to gain insight into the interpersonal relationships of Leopold I and highlights the charged identity of a royal mistress. Given that the work has been held in primarily private collections, this is an exciting prospect for scholarship and learnings on nineteenth century women’s identity and agency. This exceptional depiction is without parallel in subject matter and concurrently showcases the technical brilliance of Molteni’s mature works.

[1] Arcadie Meyer (1826-1897), nee. Claret, Baroness of Eppinghoven, photographed by François Deron in Brussels, c.1857-1876.

[2] Fernando Mazzocca, Giuseppe Molteni (1800-1867) E Il Ritratto Nella Milano Romantica, ed. Lavinia M. Galli Michero, Paola Segramora Rivolta, and Museo Poldi-Pezzoli (Milan: Skira, 2000). N. 28, illustrato p. 135.

[3] Victor Capron, Sur Les Traces d’Arcadie Claret: Le Grand Amour de Léopold Ier (Brussels: Capron, 2006).

[4] Mazzocca, Giuseppe Molteni, 2000. N. 28, illustrato p. 135.

[5] Matthew Hayes, The Renaissance Restored: Paintings Conservation and the Birth of Modern Art History in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2021). 82.

[6] Giuseppe Molteni, Mother Mourning the Death of her Child, 1845, oil on canvas, 146 x 116cm. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy. Inventory number 2200.

[7] Cathleen Hoeniger, “The Development of Principles in Paintings Conservation: Case Studies from the Restoration of Raphael’s Art.” In Conservation: Principles, Dilemmas and Uncomfortable Truths, edited by Alison Richmond and Alison Bracker, 100–112. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2009.

[8] Jill Dunkerton, 'The Technique and Restoration of Bramantino's "Adoration of the Kings"'. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol 14, 42–61.

[9] C. E. Smith (ed.), Journals and Correspondence of Lady Eastlake, 2 vols. (London, 1895), vol. ii, pp. 98–9: 22 August 1858 referenced in Susanna Avery-Quash, “Sir Charles Eastlake, the National Gallery and Milan: A Study in Connoisseurial Networks,” Journal of the History of Collections, March 18, 2024. 3, 8.

[10] Nicaise de Keyser, Portrait of Leopold I, 1856, oil on canvas, 265 cm x 153 cm, Antwerp City Hall.

[11] Nicaise de Keyser (1813-1887), Portrait of Leopold I, 1856, oil on canvas, 265 cm x 153 cm, Antwerp City Hall. BALaT object ID: 110448.

[12] Kenneth J McKenzie, “Romanticism in Italy,” Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 55, no. 1 (March 1, 1940): 27–35.

[13] See William Wordsworth Lake of Como in The Prelude, Book 6 (657-73); and Descriptive Sketches Taken During A Pedestrian Tour Among The Alps, 1791-2. Martha Hale Shackford, “Wordsworth’s Italy,” PMLA 38, no. 2 (June 1923): 236.

[14] Kenneth J. McKenzie, “Romanticism in Italy,” Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 55, no. 1 (March 1, 1940): 27–35.

[15] Maarten Van Ginderachter and Jon E. Fox, National Indifference and the History of Nationalism in Modern Europe (London: Routledge, 2020).

[16] Vespasiano Bignami, La Pittura Lombarda Nel Secolo XIX (Milan,1900).