Portrait of Princess Maria Christina

This portrait shows Princess Maria Christina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, one of the daughters of the royal family of Naples, painted around 1790. Vigée Le Brun had settled in Naples after leaving Paris during the French Revolution of 1789, and it was there that she received the commission to paint the four children of the royal couple. The work, now held at the National Museum of Capodimonte, moves away from the formality usually associated with court portraits. The young princess wears her natural hair tied back with a red ribbon and a simple dress with a red sash at the waist, and she is shown in a rustic pose, picking roses. Despite the political unrest of those years, the scene conveys a sense of lightness and freshness. The portrait is therefore an interesting example of how the painter adapted the genre to a more natural and less ceremonious taste.

Painter

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

Date

1790

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

120 × 94 cm

Museum

Museo di Capodimonte, Naples

Genre

portrait

Depicts

Queen Maria Cristina of Sardinia

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