FRANZ XAVER WINTERHALTER. Countess Alexander Nikolaevitch Lamsdorff (Maria Ivanovna Beck, 1835-1866)

FRANZ XAVER WINTERHALTER (1805-1873)

Countess Alexander Nikolaevitch Lamsdorff (Maria Ivanovna Beck, 1835-1866)

Countess Alexander Nikolaevitch Lamsdorff (Maria Ivanovna Beck, 1835-1866). Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, Menzenschwand 1805-1873 Frankfurt). Dimensions: 57 1/4 x 45 1/4 in. (145.4 x 114.9 cm). Date: 1859. Although trained in Germany, Winterhalter spent most of his adult life in Paris, where he became a favorite portraitist of European aristocrats. In 1841 alone, his sitters included the king and queen of Belgium; King Louis-Philippe of France; and Queen Maria Cristina of Spain. The following year, he added Marie-Amélie, queen of France, and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of England to his roster of royal models. The twenty-four-year-old countess depicted here was the wife of Alexander Nikolaevitch Lamsdorff, a Russian aristocrat and Francophile. The book of English poetry in her lap is thought to be a reference to her father, Ivan Alexandrovitch Beck, a poet and translator. Her choice of a fashionable day dress may have been suggested by Winterhalter, who is known to have advised his sitters on their wardrobe and posed them to their best advantage in his studio.

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Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Album / Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

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4518 x 5849 px | 75.6 MB

38.3 x 49.5 cm | 15.1 x 19.5 in (300 dpi)