Princess Isabella Of Bourbon-Parma (1741-1763)

Medium: Oil On Paper Laid On Board
Size: 46.5 x 33 cm (18.3 x 13 in)

Isabella was the eldest child of the Infante don Philip of Spain, younger full brother of Charles III, who in 1748 following the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, became reigning Duke of Parma and Guastalla (Parma had been ruled by the Farnese, Philip’s mother’s family, until 1731 when it had passed to the Infante don Charles, future Charles III of Spain who had surrendered it in 1736). Born in Madrid as an Infanta of Spain in 1741, the granddaughter of the reigning King, Philip V, Isbaella moved with her family to Parma at the age of eight. Her mother was a French Princess, the daughter of Louis XV, so she descended from Louis XIV on both sides. In 1760, aged nineteen, she was married to the young heir apparent to Austria and the Holy Roman Empire, the Archduke Joseph, son of the Emperor Joseph I (of Lorraine) and Maria Theresia of Habsburg, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. Their first child, Archduchess Maria-Theresia (so named for her grandmother) was born in March 1762 and was to survive her mother, although she died aged just eight years old in 1770. Their second child, also a daughter, lived but a few hours and just five days later Isabella died from complications following the birth. Her husband Joseph married a second time and proved a determined reformer of the antiquated imperial government; he left no issue and the Imperial throne passed to his next brother, Leopold II. It is probable that this painting was done soon after her marriage, circa 1760-62.