Franz Xavier Winterhalter

Franz Xaver Winterhalter was the portrait painter of Europe’s royal families. His sitters wear silk, lace and jewels, painted with dazzling shine, and he made them look graceful, relaxed and flattering. His style is often called Neo-Rococo.

He was born in Menzenschwand in the Black Forest and studied in Munich. He moved to Paris in the 1830s, became court painter to King Louis-Philippe, and later painted Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie. He painted Queen Victoria and her family more than a hundred times, and his famous portraits of Empress Elisabeth of Austria with stars in her hair date from 1865. His group portrait Empress Eugénie Surrounded by her Ladies in Waiting is at Compiègne.

A Swiss Girl from Interlaken shows his lighter genre side. Look at the fabrics, which he painted with remarkable speed and skill.