Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale

A collector and donor, Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale, left France one of its finest museums. The fifth son of King Louis-Philippe, he inherited the vast estate of the last prince de Condé, including the Chantilly estate, at age eight in 1830.

An officer, he distinguished himself during the conquest of Algeria, notably at the capture of Abd el-Kader's smala in 1843, before being named governor-general of Algeria in 1847. The revolution of 1848 sent him into exile.

After returning to France, he had the Grand Château de Chantilly rebuilt between 1876 and 1882 by architect Honoré Daumet to house his collections. In 1886, he bequeathed the estate and its works to the Institut de France, with the requirement that it open the musée Condé to the public.

Elected to the Académie française in 1871, he died in 1897; the musée Condé opened the following year.