Inspired by Eugène-Louis Lami (1800 – 1890) – Louis-Philippe 1st – Black stone / Red chalk / White chalk on grey paper – 8,07 x 7,08 inch

Political tensions are intensifying. Shortly before the revolution, King Louis-Philippe has a chat with Prince Jerome Napoleon at the Tuileries. The latter tries to warn the king about the depth of the problem. But the king refuses to see it: « My Prince, I fear nothing ». And he adds: « I am needed ».But insurrection is unavoidable. Louis-Philippe is therefore forced to abdicate on 24 February, 1848 in favor of his young grandson Louis-Philippe II. He pronounces this: “I abdicate this crown which the national voice had called me to bear, in favor of my little son the Count of Paris. May he succeed in the great task which is now under his control. ”

Still traumatised by the decapitation of Louis XVI and his wife Marie-Antoinette, he disguises himself and leaves Paris at once.

Insurgents invades the Palais Bourbon. Faced with pressure from public opinion, the Chamber of Deputies has to renounce the grandson as king and to entrust power to a provisional government. During that night, at the Hotel de Ville in Paris, the Second Republic is proclaimed.

A few days later, Louis-Philippe and Marie-Amélie, his wife, travel incognito under the name of “Mr. Smith”, and embarkes to Le Havre on a steamer towards England where they settle at the Claremont House provided by Queen Victoria. It is an 18th-century Palladian mansion less than a mile south of the centre of Esher in Surrey. The first work of the architect Henry Holland in 1771. But it is mostly known for the realization of Carlton House in London, residence of the Prince of Wales now destroyed.

While crossing the small town of Esher, Marie-Amélie is immediately seduced by the small sixteenth century church Saint Georges. She says she will come back for a few moments. This mad idea of ​​exile is not hers. Leaving her homeland behind until the end of her life wasn’t an easy thing to do. But she had to follow her husband to avoid, most certainly, the guillotine.

The journey was exhausting physically and morally. But discovering the house at the top of the hill, its columns, its hundred-year-old trees. She only wanted one thing: sitting in one of the small lounges in a comfortable armchair and sipping a cup of tea of which only the British have the secret.