François Henri d'Harcourt, 5th Duke of Harcourt (12 January 1726 – 22 July 1802) was a French general, duke and peer. He emigrated during the French Revolution, and he became a representative of

Louis XVIII of France Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 ...

to the British government (1792–1800).

Personal life

D'Harcourt was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

as son of Anne Pierre d'Harcourt, a Marshal of France, and Thérèse Eulalie de Beaupoil. He married, 13 June 1752, Catherine Scholastica Aubusson, (1733–1815). Their daughter Anne (1753–1778) married Victurnien-Jean-Baptiste de Rochechouart, Duke of Mortemarts. D'Harcourt died in Staines, England, aged 76. In his château Thury-Harcourt, he created a vast English landscape style park, one of the first in France.

Portrait

On 5 December 2013, in

Bonhams Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought t ...

's salerooms in New Bond Street, London, a portrait of d'Harcourt by

Jean-Honoré Fragonard Jean-Honoré Fragonard (; 5 April 1732 (birth/baptism certificate) – 22 August 1806) was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific art ...

, one of his '' Fantastical Portraits'', sold for £17,106,500 sterling, setting a world-record price for the artist at auction. The previous record was £5,300,000 for a painting sold in London in 1999. The sum paid was also the highest price for an Old Master painting sold at auction anywhere in the world in 2013.

's sale of paintings and sculpture from the collection of the German philanthropist, the late Dr Gustav Rau, raised more than £19 million, with the proceeds benefiting the Foundation of the German Committee for

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

– for the children of the world. The painting was also previously sold for £340,000 in 1971 (), when the d'Harcourt family collection was dispersed.

References

Francois-Henri Members of the Académie Française French generals 1726 births 1802 deaths Military personnel from Paris 18th-century peers of France {{France-noble-stub