German School, 18th century
Eleonore Magdalena of Pfalz-Neuburg (1655-1720), Wife of Emperor Leopold I (1640-1705) c.1700
Oil on canvas | 93.4 x 74.3 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 406641
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The sitter is Eleonore Magdalena Neuburg, a Holy Roman Empress, German Queen, and Queen of Hungary. She was the third and last wife of Leopold I. An educated woman, she was politically active and wielded influence over her husband; as she was multi-lingual she was able to translate foreign political documents, from French, for her husband.
She is depicted at half-length within a painted oval, holding up a diamond-set miniature of her husband; wearing a gold brocade dress with a jewelled double-headed eagle on the stomacher, the Hungarian Crown of St Stephen on table beside her. Her hair is worn high, close to the commode-style fashionable in the late 17th to early 18th century.
The painting can be compared to an engraving of the sitter by Peter Schenck the Elder (1660-1780).Provenance
Bequeathed to King Edward VII by Mrs JA Maidstone-Smyth, 1903
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
93.4 x 74.3 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
109.7 x 91.2 x 8.0 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)