High Society The Portraits of
Franz Xaver Winterhalter Arnoldsche Art Publishers in association with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Augustinermuseum, Städtische Museen Freiburg Palais de Compiègne
15 Il Dolce Farniente 1836 Oil on canvas, 44 ⅞ × 62 ⅝ in. (114 × 159 cm) Private collection
Apart from The Decameron (cat. 16), Il Dolce Farniente may well be the most important and impressive genre picture that Franz Xaver Winterhalter ever painted. The work dates from 1836, when Winterhalter was enjoying his first successes in Paris. The painting was shown at the Salon that year to great public acclaim. The artist was even awarded one of the eight second-class medals for this work. To design the composition and develop the individual characters, Winterhalter presumably used sketches and drawings from his time in Italy. He also made a second version of the painting, which was acquired by the Czar of Russia in 1838 and is now in the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The picture shows an Arcadian landscape in blazing sunlight, presumably on the Gulf of Naples because Vesuvius is recognizable in the background. The Italian title means simply “sweet idleness,” which explains why the painting is also known as Siesta in Naples. The response accorded it by contemporaries, for instance in the 1836 Kunstblatt, speaks of a Neapolitan fisherman’s family prone to indulging in idleness. However, what Winterhalter probably had in mind was an idealized representation of the Golden Age because he had personally experienced the poverty and squalor omnipresent in Italy. The theme is not just leisure but also harmony and amicable togetherness. Winterhalter has arranged his figures on gently rising ground in groups of two and three, who are communicating with one another. Nevertheless, all of the figures fit into a harmonious whole, as Winterhalter connects three groups with glances between certain figures. The woman with the mandolin player, for instance, is looking at the two young men in the foreground. And, finally, the seated young man with the red hat is lost in thought but facing toward the viewer. Tinged with the warmth of summer sunlight, this painting documents the painter’s superb handling of composition and can be regarded as one of his masterpieces. With consummate skill he has staged the groups of figures with foreshortening and perspectives in such a way that realistic representation is matched with convincing spatial depth. In this lively form of genre painting, Winterhalter was influenced by the Swiss-born painter Léopold Robert. TvS —— REFERENCES : Panter 1996, pp. 65–66, fig. 13 (cat. 44); Eismann 2007, pp. 64–65,
fig. 39; Ludwig 2009, pp. 278–79; Barilo von Reisberg, “The Winterhalter Catalogue,” no. 111. EXHIBITIONS : London and Paris 1987–88, no. 9. PROVENANCE : Asse Collection 1843; a Belgian collection 1864–74; 1894 Artemis Group, London; since 2000 privately owned.
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34 Princess Leonilla of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn 1843 Oil on canvas, 56 × 83 1⁄2 in. (142 × 212 cm) J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, inv. no. 86.PA.534
In 1834 Leonilla Ivanovna Bariatinskaia (1816–1918), daughter of Field-Marshal Prince Ivan Ivanovich Bariatynski (1772– 1826) and his second wife, Marie Wilhelmine Luise Countess von Keller (1792–1858), married Ludwig, Prince of SaynWittgenstein-Sayn (1799–1866), one of the czar’s aides-decamp, a Russian aristocrat, and descendant of a princely German family. This remarkable couple had four children, and they were known for their peripatetic lifestyle, taking their entire household—children, pets, servants, and tutors— with them as they traveled around Europe. In 1848 the family settled in Germany, rebuilding a baroque manor house into a charming neo-Gothic castle on the Rhine. Leonilla, renowned for her intellect as well as her beauty, hosted a salon for many years. She died at the age of 101 in her villa near Geneva, having witnessed the transformation of Europe from the end of the Napoleonic era to the end of World War I. The picture’s size and horizontal format in rendering a single figure are unique in Winterhalter’s oeuvre, as is the sitter’s pose—Leonilla is languorously reclining on a low Turkish sofa placed on a terrace, where a lush tropical landscape can be seen in the background. The combination of the pose with its allusion to Orientalist images of odalisques and the sundrenched landscape, which may in fact be a view from the family’s palace on the Crimea, raise this painting to a level somewhere between portrait and genre painting. The work also recalls Winterhalter’s successful genre paintings, including Il Dolce Farniente or The Decameron (cats. 15, 16) of the 1830s, and shares with these earlier works the integration of the figure into the landscape. No doubt enticed by Leonilla’s beguiling beauty, Winterhalter gives her face an aura of mystery by placing it in the shade. With her right hand she seems to be absentmindedly fingering her pearl necklace while a partially opened fan in her left underscores the sensation of a heat-induced languor that permeates this painting. The princess’s attire at first glance seems very exotic but actually consists of a fashionable white dress accessorized with a luxurious purple wrap, a black lace stole, and a pink satin ribbon knotted at the waist into a very personal fashion statement. Winterhalter masterfully rendered the ample folds of the white silk skirt, letting light and shade play over the material in subtle gradations. HKA/JE —— REFERENCES : Wild 1894, nos. 79, 80; von Schneider 1935; Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
1979a, p. 162; Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn 1979b; Ruhmer 1981, p. 369; Heilmann 1984, pp. 37, 69–69, no. 32; Artemis 1985–86, p. 26; Ormond/Blackett-Ord 1987, pp. 185–86, cat. 20; Panter 1996, fig. 15; Barilo von Reisberg, “The Winterhalter Catalogue,” no. 243; Barilo von Reisberg [2015], pp. 76–77, fig. 15. EXHIBITIONS : London and Paris 1987–88, no. 20. PROVENANCE : By family descent; purchased by Artemis Group, ca. 1985; purchased by the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1986.
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Emperor Napoleon III
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Empress EugĂŠnie
77 Alexandra, Princess of Wales 1864 Oil on canvas, 64 × 44 ⅞ in. (162.6 × 114 cm) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
The lovely and elegant Alexandra, Princess of Wales (1844– 1925), was born Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia, Princess of Denmark, the daughter of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1818–1906), who would become King Christian IX of Denmark, and his wife, Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel (1817–1898). Alexandra and her siblings, who included several future monarchs of Europe, enjoyed a happy childhood, growing up in relatively modest circumstances, at least according to aristocratic standards. Queen Victoria and her eldest daughter, Vicky, already married to the Crown Prince of Prussia, chose Alexandra to be Prince Edward’s wife when she was sixteen years old. The young couple waited three years to marry, partly due to the queen’s intense mourning after her husband’s death in 1861. They had six children, of whom five lived to adulthood, but Edward’s often scandalous philandering was a source of great unhappiness for the princess. After thirty-eight years, her husband acceded to the throne as King Edward VII, and she became the queen consort. Alexandra was extremely popular with the public, and with the rise of photography, her image was widely disseminated. She became the fashion icon of her day, even setting some trends unintentionally. For example, she disguised a small scar on her neck with an array of choker necklaces and high necklines that became very fashionable in the 1880s.1 Painted one year after her wedding, this work captures the youth and vitality of the future queen. The plunging neckline of her white dress highlights the glow of her ivory skin, and the soft pink roses of her headdress and the shimmer of her pearl earrings enhance the sparkle in her eyes and the blush of her cheeks—all of which visually transmits the message of
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a healthy young woman, capable of securing the royal lineage. Winterhalter paid special tribute to Alexandra’s elegance through his painterly tour de force in depicting her magnificent dress, a symphony of lace and tulle cut to emphasize her beautiful bust and tiny waistline. The teal-colored bows at the bodice are echoed by a wide ribbon of the same color that sweeps across the skirt, gathering up a swath of lace on the skirt and bringing a great deal of movement into an otherwise very static composition. The open and sketchy brushwork Winterhalter employed on the lower part of the skirt is remarkably impressionistic in feeling. JE —— REFERENCES : Alexander 1973, p. 53; Ormond/Blackett-Ord 1987, pp. 53–54, 61,
200, cat. 48; Millar 1992, vol. 1, p. 309, cat. 876, and vol. 2, fig. 776; Barilo von Reisberg, “The Winterhalter Catalogue,” no. 788; Barilo von Reisberg [2015], p. 91, fig. 81. EXHIBITIONS : Ottawa 1967, no. 257. PROVENANCE : Her Majesty Queen Victoria; Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. ——
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Duff 2011, p. 38.
92 Queen Victoria’s Costume for the Stuart Ball of 1851 Designed by Eugène Lami (French, 1800–90); unknown maker 1851 Moiré silk, brocade, silk braid and silk ribbon, silk velvet ribbon, faux pearls, silver fringe, and hangers The Royal Collection Trust, inv. no. RCIN 74860
This lavish costume was designed by Eugène Lami for Queen Victoria to wear on the occasion of the spectacular Stuart Ball, held at Buckingham Palace in the summer of 1851, but it is unknown who carried out the actual fabrication of the garment. Prince Albert was equally splendidly dressed, but his costume has not survived. This dress is a wonderful document of the royal couple’s love of history and their delight in fanciful entertainment. The so-called Stuart Ball was the third costume ball held by the couple, following the Bal Costumé of 1842 and the 1745 Fancy Ball held in 1845, each evoking a different period of history. Lami, who was deeply involved with the entire production of the event, already had a long history of designing historical costumes and was a highly qualified choice. The queen was delighted with his work, especially with the royal couple’s costumes. In her journal entry for June 13, 1851, she notes: Our dresses were most exactly carried out from Eugène Lami’s drawings. Mine, was of grey moiré antique, ornamented with gold lace, a very long waist with a bertha of guipure,& sleeves trimmed with old lace. The petticoat, showing under the dress, which was all open in front, was of rich gold & silver brocade, Indian manufacture richly trimmed with silver lace.
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The costume is documented several times in drawings by Lami as well as in Winterhalter’s oil sketch, allowing some interesting comparisons. In his sketch, obviously copying from historical portraits, Lami strives to emulate as closely as possible a seventeenth-century dress, with slit and puffed sleeves and a long stomacher. In the actual garment, the sleeves are shorter, as is the waistline, both having been adapted to mid-nineteenth-century fashions and probably also taking into account Queen Victoria’s very short stature. The greatest difference, however, can be found in the fabric of the dress. Lami’s drawing clearly depicts a blue-gray figured brocade with an all-over pattern, but the actual costume is made of a striped silk moiré whose color Queen Victoria described as gray but that has faded over time to a soft yellow. Winterhalter, who painted the dress on the day before the ball, recorded the original shade of blue-gray. HKA