Countess Therese Mittrowsky, née Countess Wrbna (1812-90)

Regarding structure and colouring this plain portrait of Countess Thérèse Mittrowsky resembles the portraits by the English painter Thomas Lawrence, who worked in Vienna in the 1820's and had great influence on the development of portrait miniature painting. Thérèse Mittrowsky (1812-after 1890) was the eldest daughter of Count Eugen Wrbna (1786-1848) and his wife Barbara Countess Erdödy (1793-1858) and came from an old and distinguished Austrian noble family. In 1839 Thérèse married Anton Friedrich Count Mittrowsky of Mittrowitz and Nemischl whose family had settled in Hungary and Bohemia in the 15th century. As this miniature was painted after a portrait by Daffinger, who created several portraits of the Countess ¹ , it cannot be dated exactly. The wide puffed sleeves of the lady's dress and her hair style, however, suggest that Daffinger's original must have been painted in the mid-1830's.

¹ See Grünstein, 1923, board XXIV, and Leisching, 1907, board XXXIX, fig. 105.