CHAPTER XI

THE ART TREASURES OF THE MUSÉE CONDÉ

The Duc d'Aumale joins the ranks of the great European collectors; his pronounced taste as a bibliophile; he purchases the Standish Library in 1851; the _Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry_ are acquired in 1855; the Reiset Collection of 380 drawings is bought in 1861; an exhibition is organised at Orleans House; Disraeli's speech; the first French drawings acquired from the Utterson sale; the Pourtales Vase and the Minerva; the Madonna of the _Maison d'Orléans_; the Sutherland collection of French drawings is purchased; the portrait of _Antoine de Bourgogne_; the Carmontelle Collection is added; the Reiset Collection of paintings acquired; Victor Hugo addresses a letter to the Duc d'Aumale on his election as member of the Institut de France; Raphael's _Three Graces_ purchased from the Earl of Dudley; over 300 French drawings are acquired from Lord Carlisle; the Duc d'Aumale makes his last important acquisition--the forty miniatures by Fouquet from the _Book of Hours_ of Etienne Chevalier.....129