Maria Christina of Austria

Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta's Maria Christina of Austria (1887) depicts the Queen Regent of Spain — the Austrian-born widow of Alfonso XII who governed Spain as regent during the minority of her son Alfonso XIII from 1885 to 1902. Madrazo, the most fashionable Spanish portrait painter of his era who worked primarily in Paris, received the commission to portray the regent in a moment of significant political responsibility — a young widow managing the Spanish state through constitutional crises and colonial tensions. The portrait carries the weight of political portraiture: the documentation of authority.

Madrazo renders the Queen Regent with the elegant precision and social sensitivity that made him the preferred portraitist of European royalty and aristocracy. Maria Christina's Austrian-born appearance and the dignity of her widowed-regent status would be conveyed through careful attention to dress, bearing, and expression. His palette is warm and flattering within the conventions of royal portraiture — the specific colors of court dress and mourning, balanced with the luminous flesh tones for which his female portraits were celebrated.