The Wedding of Leopold I of Belgium and Louise of Orléans

Joseph-Désiré Court's The Wedding of Leopold I of Belgium and Louise of Orléans (1837) depicts the marriage of King Leopold I of Belgium to Princess Louise-Marie of Orléans — daughter of Louis-Philippe — in August 1832, a dynastic union that simultaneously legitimized the new Belgian kingdom in European eyes and bound it firmly to the July Monarchy of France. The wedding was celebrated in both Belgium and France as a diplomatic triumph, and Court's large-format canvas, now in the Louvre, documents the ceremony with the grandeur appropriate to a state commission that combined French domestic politics with European diplomacy.

Court handles this wedding scene with the controlled, space-managing approach he brought to all his large official commissions — the bridal pair at centre, the assembled royal families and court arrayed around them, the ceremonial setting rendered with documentary precision. The white of the bride's dress provides the compositional focus against the rich colour of uniforms and court dress.