(Iglau 1725–1793)
Portrait of Empress Maria Ludovica, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Infanta of Spain (1745–1792), three-quarter-length,
oil on canvas, 141 x 93 cm, framed

Provenance:
Dukes of Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha, Palais Coburg, Vienna;
Private collection, Vienna

Maria Ludovica was the fifth daughter of the King of Naples and Sicily and future King of Spain, Charles III, and his wife Maria Amalia of Saxony. She married to a son of Empress Maria Theresa I, Peter Leopold (1747–1792), who inherited the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany. Together, they lived in Florence, in Palazzo Pitti, for twenty-five years. Upon the death of his older brother Joseph II, Maria Ludovica’s husband became Holy Roman Emperor in 1790, taking the name of Leopold II and they moved to Vienna. After only two years, Leopold II and Maria Ludovica died three months apart from one another in 1792.

At the time the present portrait was painted, Maria Ludovica was still a young woman. Her beauty was praised by her contemporaries. In the present composition the artist Johann Nepomuk Steiner has given particular attention to the sitter’s ornate dress with ruffled sleeves, decorated with a rose pattern. Maria Ludovica gently hilds the precious fabric between the fingers of her left hand.

Johann Nepomuk Steiner first trained with his Bohemian compatriot Ignaz Josef Raab, then later in Venice and in Rome. He was appointed Habsburg court painter in 1760 and portrayed some of the most illustrious personalities of his time, amongst them not only Maria Ludovica, but also the Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Joseph II (see U. Thieme/F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig 1999, vol. 31/32, s.v. Steiner, Johann Nepomuk, p. 557).