Circle of Jean-Etienne Liotard | Umkreis von Jean-Etienne Liotard

W. Koschatzky ed., Maria Theresia und ihre Zeit, Vienna 1979, pl. 146-3, repr. p. 502;

W. Koschatzky, 'Das Bildnis der Kaiserin Maria Theresia', Parnass, Sept. 1996, pp. 59-62 (as Liotard and studio)

M. Roethlisberger and R. Loche, Liotard. Catalogue, Sources et Correspondance, 2 vols., Doornspijk 2008, pp. 313-4, cat. 116, figs. 182-3

Vienna, Schloss Schönbrunn, Maria Theresia, 1930 (as Austrian artist, 18th Century);

Vienna, Schloss Schönbrunn, Maria Theresia und ihre Zeit, 1980, no. 15,04

As Professor Roethlisberger noted (see Literature), this is the best of the three known versions of this image of Maria Theresa; the other two are in oil, rather than pastel. Roethlisberger does not believe any of these portraits are by Liotard himself, but they were clearly inspired by his example, and may well have been made under his direct supervision, during one of the great Swiss pastellist's visits to Vienna.

The Empress's fine Turkish costume is close to that worn by an anonymous woman of Pera, of whom Liotard made a fine full-length portrait, now in the Geneva Museum, when he was in Constantinople.¹

1. Roethlisberger 2008, cat. 70, fig. 89