It depicts the final moments of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry on 13 February 1820 after he was mortally wounded by an assassin at the Théâtre National.

[1][2] Berry was the nephew of the French king Louis XVIII and a prominent figure of the Restoration era.

Unknown at the time, Berry's wife Marie Caroline was pregnant with a son Henri whose birth in September 1820 seemed to secure the future of the Bourbon dynasty.

[4] The painting features notable figures of the Restoration era who crowd around the wounded Duke including his uncle, King Louis XVIII, his father the Count of Artois, his elder brother Duke of Angoulême and his wife Marie Caroline who holds up their young daughter Princess Louise.

The work was commissioned by the French state for six thousand francs to be hung in the Musée du Luxembourg.