Attributed to Johann Zoffany R.A. 1733-1810

In 1772 Zoffany left England to travel to Florence, where he was to paint the Tribuna of the Uffizi for Queen Charlotte.  He reached Florence in August and settled into the English community there, forming a close relationship with Lord Cowper, who was very helpful in getting the artist the proper introductions to the Grand-Ducal court.  Tuscany was ruled by Pietro Leopoldo, second son of the Empress Maria Theresa, and Zoffany soon found favour with him.  He painted the Grand Duke's son, the Archduke Francis, his sister the Archduchess Maria Christina (the Empress's favourite daughter), and a magnificent conversation piece of the Grand Duke himself with his family.  In 1776 Zoffany set off with this great 'family piece' to Vienna, in a specially constructed carriage, where it was completed to the Empress's satisfaction.  The Empress made Zoffany a Baron of the Holy Roman Empire, as a mark of her favour.  On his return to Italy, he painted a further picture for the Empress, a fine conversation piece of four of her grandchildren, the four eldest children of the Archduchess Maria Amalia and her husband the Duke Ferdinand of Palma.

This beautiful portrait was probably painted by Zoffany during this period.  It shows two ladies in a finely furnished room, the central figure, gesturing towards a pier glass in which a portrait of Maria Theresa is reflected.  The Empress is shown in black, which she would have worn following her husband's death in 1765.  Her image is taken from the portrait of her by Maron of 1772.  The picture shows many characteristics of Zoffany's conversation pieces.  The details of the furniture are very precisely recorded with a particularly fine pier table and pier glass of the 1770s.  The tripod table can be seen in an earlier work, the portrait of Mr and Mrs Dalton with their niece (Tate Gallery).  The clever use of the reflection in the mirror was a favourite device of Zoffany, first seen in his portraits of George later Prince of Wales and Frederick later Duke of York and Queen Charlotte with her two eldest sons (both Royal Collection).  It is also interesting to note how the room apparently runs out into an open landscape, a device also used to great effect in Lord Cowper and the Gore family, painted by Zoffany in Florence in 1775.

It may at first seem surprising that members of the Hapsburg family should be painted in a room full of English furniture.  However Zoffany lived close to the English colony whilst in Florence and it is perfectly possible that the sitters were painted in his own rooms there.