Maria Theresia van Oostenrijk (1717-80), aartshertogin van Oostenrijk, koningin van Hongarije en Bohemen, Rooms-Duits keizerin

The Rijksmuseum's 1762 pastel of Maria Theresa by Liotard joins the copper portrait of 1747 (also in this batch) as part of a sustained documentary record of the Habsburg empress across fifteen years. The 1762 pastel, made when Maria Theresa was forty-five, shows her in the full authority of mid-career rule: she had survived the War of the Austrian Succession, concluded the Seven Years' War in 1763 (just one year after this portrait), and was consolidating the administrative reforms that would define her legacy. Liotard's pastel technique gives the empress a different quality than his copper work—softer, more atmospheric, more suited to conveying the personality behind the imperial function. The Rijksmuseum's collecting of multiple Liotard works, including this major Habsburg portrait, reflects the Dutch institution's recognition of his importance within the European eighteenth-century tradition.

Pastel on paper or vellum: comparing this with the 1747 copper portrait reveals how the medium shapes the image. Pastel's soft luminosity creates a different Maria Theresa than copper's jewel-like precision—warmer, more personal, less like an official state image.