Österreichisch, nach Ducreux
Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria
This portrait miniature shows Maria Theresa in a widow's dress, which she donned after her husband Franz I Stephan (Cat.-No. 2008-4) died on August 18, 1765 in Innsbruck. It is a copy of a pastel portrait by the French painter Joseph Ducreux (1735-1802) which the latter painted in 1769 during his stay in Vienna, where he was to portrait young Marie Antoinette. 1 There are many replicas and copies of this portrait, some of which were produced in enamel and miniature technique.
Her husband's death was a terrible blow to the Empress. She expressed her grief not only by having her hair cut but also by distributing her jewellery among her daughters and her gowns among her ladies-in-waiting. She wore mourning for the rest of her life. "I do not know myself anymore. I live like an animal, knowing neither feeling nor reason, and forget everything. At five o' clock I get up, I go to bed late at night and do nothing all day long. I do not even think." 2
B.P.
1 Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts, Inv. 207. Cat.-No. 15 shows a miniature of the Empress that was painted fifteen years earlier.
2 Excerpt from a letter written by Maria Theresa to her confidential advisor Duke Silva-Tarouca, quoted in: Vienna 1980, p. 197.
