FLAVIEN-EMMANUEL CHABANNE (FRENCH, 1799-1864)

Prince Victor-Amédée-Marie de Broglie was the youngest of fifteen children of Victor-François de Broglie (1718-1804). He was originally destined for a life with the Church but the outbreak of the French Revolution saw him joining the emigrés army into a regiment commanded by his father. After his brother's death in 1794 he rose to Colonel of the regiment and received the Order of St Louis in 1799 and became Marshal of France in the same year. In 1813 he turned down an offer made by Napoleon to command a regiment of Guards of Honour but accepted the role of Inspector of the Cavalry after the Bourbon restoration. He retired from military life as maréchal de camp in 1835.
We are indebted to Dr Dimitri Gorchkoff for identifying the sitter as Prince Victor-Amédée-Marie de Broglie and the orders he is wearing in the present portrait. According to him, the sitter's aiguillettes and orders suggest that the present miniature derives from an 1818-1819 portrait.