Valentine de Milan implore la justice du roi Charles VI pour l'assassinat du duc d'Orléans by Alexandre Colin

Colin employed oil paint on canvas to achieve a smooth, highly finished surface, demonstrating careful attention to the textures of textiles and the nuances of facial expressions. The composition is defined by a dramatic lighting scheme that illuminates the central female figure while leaving many of the surrounding faces in shadow, heightening the theatrical intensity of the scene. The palette is dominated by deep blues, crimson reds, burnt oranges, and dark greens. The interior architecture features Gothic ribbed vaulting in the upper right, while the background includes ornate wall hangings with heraldic motifs, a painted frieze of battle scenes, and a floor with a geometric pattern in red and beige. These stylistic choices anchor the work firmly in the Romantic tradition of history painting.

Created in 1836, the painting was shown publicly at the Salon of 1837. It entered the French national collections and is currently housed at the Museum of the History of France in the Palace of Versailles. The work carries the inventory numbers MV 7235, INV 3300, and LP 2578. In 2014, it was lent to the musée des beaux-arts de Lyon for the exhibition L'invention du Passé. Histoires de cœur et d'épée 1802-1850, which explored historical narratives in European art of the period.

Alexandre-Marie Colin, born in Paris in 1798 and dying there in 1873, operated within the French academic and Romantic currents of the nineteenth century. His painting of Valentine de Milan aligns with the July Monarchy's broader cultural interest in medieval and Renaissance history, particularly narratives of dynastic conflict and moral righteousness. By choosing the 1407 assassination of the Duke of Orléans, a pivotal event leading to the Armagnac-Burgundian civil war, Colin engaged with a subject that resonated with contemporary French fascinations regarding justice, monarchy, and political fragmentation. The classification of the work as a history painting underscores its elevated status within the academic hierarchy of genres at the time.