The Princess von und zu Liechtenstein

This 1793 portrait of the Princess von und zu Liechtenstein was painted during Vigée Le Brun’s Viennese exile, where she found enthusiastic reception among the Habsburg aristocracy. Vienna’s conservative court society welcomed the French émigré artist, and her portraits from this period document the Austrian nobility at a moment of political uncertainty. Vigée Le Brun was the most technically accomplished and socially successful woman painter of the eighteenth century, achieving membership of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1783 and a clientele that extended from the French royal family to the courts of Russia, Austria, and Italy during her decade of exile following the Revolution. Her portrait manner combined the neoclassical formal values of her training with a quality of feminine intimacy and emotional warmth that made her portraits of women and children especially celebrated. Her ability to make her sitters appear simultaneously dignified and approachable was the technical foundation of her social success.

The portrait demonstrates Vigée Le Brun’s ability to adapt her style to different courts while maintaining her distinctive luminous technique. The careful rendering of aristocratic costume and jewels emphasizes the sitter’s rank.