Portrait Of Marie Antoinette of Austria
Portrait Of Marie Antoinette of Austria c1767 by Dutch-Swedish Painter Martin van Meytens (1695 – 1770); a court painter and painter of the aristocracy including such noted individuals as Marie Antoinette, Maria Theresa of Austria, Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and his family as well as members of the Austrian Royal Court.
This is a beautifully done portrait of a young Marie Antoinette. She is wearing a blue floral embroidered silk gown with with white ruffles all along the sleeves, with a matching ruffles choker.
On top of her grey wig she has a silver headpiece with matching earrings and a matching gold and silver choker necklace, that match nicely with the silver brooches that adorn the blue bows on her sleeves.
She is sitting in a red padded chair, with a gold colored frame, resting her right elbow on a white fur lined cobalt blue cape that has been placed on a royal red pillow with gold accented borders and gold tassel; this all rest on a decorative marble table.
Behind her we can just make out the decorative wall and there is also a large red drape hanging on the wall to her left.
The Portrait Of Marie Antoinette of Austria is a retouched digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image that is available online as a rolled print.
Info Below Derived From Wikipedia.org
Martin van Meytens was a Swedish-Austrian painter who painted members of the Royal Court of Austria such as Marie Antoinette, Maria Theresa of Austria, Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, the Emperor’s family and members of the local aristocracy. His painting style inspired many other painters to paint in a similar format.
Martin van Meytens was born and baptized in Stockholm, Sweden, son of the painter Martin Meytens the Elder, who had moved around 1677 from The Hague to Sweden. He went early in his career on an extended study trip. He visited London, Paris and Vienna, then he lived and worked for a long time in Italy (Rome, Turin). At the beginning he painted little enamel miniature portraits, and he changed to oil painting only around 1730, having settled in Vienna.
Here he became very popular as a portrait painter in the circles of the court and the aristocracy. In 1732 he became a court painter, and in 1759 the director of the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts. Franz Xaver Messerschmidt was his protégé.
Meytens was one of the most significant Austrian painters of representative Baroque courtly portrait, and through his pupils and followers his influence remained alive and widespread for a long time throughout the whole Empire. His personal virtues, varied interests, erudition and pleasant manners were highly appreciated by his contemporaries.
The Wedding Supper depicts the wedding of Princess Isabella of Parma and Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, 5 October 1760, at Hofburg Palace’s Redoutensaele (Redoute Hall). The moment depicted is when the dessert is served, in the middle of the table is a garden made by sugar crust.
