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After being named King of Italy in 1861, Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy continued his efforts to reunite the entire peninsula under his national leadership. He achieved a major step toward this goal by incorporating the Veneto region in 1866, the year this official portrait was painted. It shows the bluff, but good-natured king with his characteristic, impressive moustache in full military uniform, standing next to a table with the map of the Italian boot. Behind him in the corner are the Italian tricolour and a tag with the name of the city of Trieste, which had just been joined to the young kingdom.
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