Portrait of Princess Hermenegilde von Esterházy (1769–1845), née Liechtenstein, as Ariadne on Naxos

Vigée Le Brun's 1793 portrait of Princess Hermenegilde von Esterházy as Ariadne on Naxos was painted during the artist's exile from Revolutionary France, when she traveled through Europe portraying the aristocracy of the ancien régime in exile or in their home courts. The Liechtenstein Collection work casts its sitter in the role of Ariadne — abandoned by Theseus on Naxos — a subject that allowed Vigée Le Brun to combine portrait fidelity with neoclassical allegory. In 1793, as the French Revolution consumed the world these aristocrats had known, the allegory of abandonment carried resonances beyond mere classical learning.

Vigée Le Brun's fluid technique renders skin with silky warmth and drapery with ease. The neoclassical costume allows both classical reference and a display of the artist's ability to paint fine, loosely draped fabric. The expression is simultaneously the princess's likeness and the theatrical pose of Ariadne's melancholy.