15 - ANTOINE VICTOR LÉOPOLD DURAND, KNOWN AS LÉOPOLD DURANGEL (MARSEILLE 1828–1898 PARIS)

ANTOINE VICTOR LÉOPOLD DURAND, KNOWN AS LÉOPOLD DURANGEL (MARSEILLE 1828–1898 PARIS) *Portrait of Baron François de Chabaud-Latour (1804–1885), Major General, in full dress uniform* Oil on canvas 185.5 x 121.5 cm. Signed and dated lower right: 1885 A graduate of the École Polytechnique and an officer in the Corps of Engineers, François Henri Ernest, Baron de Chabaud-Latour (1804–1885), had a distinguished military career marked by the Algerian campaigns and the planning of Paris’s fortifications during the July Monarchy. As aide-de-camp to the Count of Paris and reputed to be close to the House of Orléans, he simultaneously began his parliamentary career by serving as a deputy for the Gard department from 1837 to 1848. Promoted to major general in 1857 and then appointed chairman of the Fortifications Committee in 1864, he oversaw the capital’s defense works during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, for which he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. Re-elected as a deputy to the National Assembly in 1871, he chaired the committee responsible for drafting the Military Act of 1872 and established himself as a leading figure of the Orléanist right. From July 1874 to March 1875, he served as Minister of the Interior in the government of Patrice de Mac Mahon. His political career concluded in the Senate, where he served as a senator for life from 1877 until his death. Also deeply involved in religious life, this prominent Protestant figure concurrently presided over the French Bible Society and actively participated in the national governing bodies of the Reformed Church. €800–1,200