The Children Of Emperor Francis I And Empress Maria Theresa with Marie-Antoinette as the Bride

ATTRIBUTED TO JOHANN GEORG WEIKERT

Medium: Oil On Canvas
Size: 183 x 145 cm (72 x 57.1 in)
Signed: Engraved Anonymously

Full title : The children of Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Thereisa dancing the Ballet-Pantomine The Triumph of Love by Frans Hilverding and leopold Florian Gassmann, to Celebrate the Marriage of the Emperor Joseph II to Princess Marie-Josèphe of Bavaria 23/24 January 1765

The original work on which Weikert based his two versions of this composition was painted for the Empress Maria Theresia by Martin Van Meytens (1695-1770) to commemorate the ballet staged by the Imperial children for the celebrations of their brother’s marriage. This was presumably painted very shortly after the events portrayed, sometime in 1765 and has remained in the Schönborn palace ever since. In 1777 Marie-Antoinette evidently wrote to her mother to ask for a copy of to be sent to Versailles to be installed in the dining room of the Petit-Trianon, in place of a pair of a painting by Noel Hallé to which the young Queen had taken a dislike. A letter from the Empress to her daughter dated 5 January 1778 noted that her Ambassador had sent the precise measurements for the work and pointed out that there were actually two paintings; the Empress suggested that a copy also be made the second one of the opera performed at the same date. The Queen replied positively to this proposal on 15 January, with the dimensions for the pendant and one year later, on 12 February 1779, the two works were sent to Versailles. The original by Mytens measures 226 x 151 cm but the version made by Weikert for Versailles is actually larger: 286 x 211 cm, while this smaller reduction, probably made for one of the other performers, is just 2/3rds of the size of the Versailles version.

Weikert enjoyed a successful career at the court in Vienna, painting numerous portraits of the Empress and the ten of her sixteen children to survive to adulthood. He also painted well-known figures in Viennese life and leading members of the Austrian nobility in a style which owed much to the conventions of 18th century portraiture established across Europe. In order to produce this larger format work, Weikert has increased the height of the tree on the left but eliminated that on the right as well as the spindly trees that frame the central figure in the Mytens. Weikert’s landscape is more naturalistic, but also darker and sparser, with no distant river snaking into the horizon as in the Mystens. Weikert, like Mytens, however, has invested considerable effort in the portraits of the young performers and, particularly, in the rendering of the luscious silks and floral garlands that decorate their costumes.

The occasion represented was a performance written and performed by the Imperial children to celebrate their eldest brother Joseph’s marriage to Princess Marie-Josèphe of Bavaria, on 23 January 1765. The role of cupid was played by the Archduke Maximilian, while the Archduke Ferdinand portrayed the Groom and the Archduchess Marie-Antoinette the Bride. The young ladies from left to right were Countesses Christine and Thérèse von Clary und Aldringen, and Countesses Christine and Pauline von Auersperg. The male roles were played by Frederick Landgraf von Furstenberg, Count Franz Xavier von Auersperg, and Counts Joseph and Wenceslas von Clary und Aldringen. Such performances by members of European royal families were no novelty; the princes and princesses of the Austrian imperial family in particular were educated in all the arts and above all considerable patrons of music.