The ''Portrait of Francis I of Austria'' is a

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

by the British

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

Sir Thomas Lawrence Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English people, English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was a ...

depicting the Austrian Emperor Francis I (previously Francis II of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

History and description

Commissioned by the

Prince Regent A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illness) or ab ...

of Britain, it was initially painted during the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818 and completed over the following months. Lawrence, Britain's leading

portrait painter Portrait painting is a Hierarchy of genres, genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commissio ...

of the

Regency Era The Regency era of British history is commonly understood as the years between and 1837, although the official regency for which it is named only spanned the years 1811 to 1820. King George III first suffered debilitating illness in the lat ...

, was commissioned by the Regent to depict many European leaders who had participated in the defeat of the French Empire during the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

. The Prince Regent commissioned the work for 500

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where m ...

. Thhe portrait shows Francis wearing military uniform with a plumed hat on the table beside him. He wears the British

Order of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. The most senior order of knighthood in the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system, it is outranked in ...

and more prominently the Austrian

Order of the Golden Fleece The Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece (, ) is a Catholic order of chivalry founded in 1430 in Brugge by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, to celebrate his marriage to Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy, Isabella of Portugal. T ...

. Lawrence observed difficulties with the Emperor's face which he found long, thin and

melancholic Melancholia or melancholy (from ',Burton, Bk. I, p. 147 meaning black bile) is a concept found throughout ancient, medieval, and premodern medicine in Europe that describes a condition characterized by markedly depressed mood, bodily complain ...

. However, when Francis smiled he showed a benevolence which Lawrence depicted in the painting. Unlike the other Allied monarchs, Lawrence portrayed Francis in full-length and seated on a

throne A throne is the seat of state of a potentate or dignitary, especially the seat occupied by a sovereign (or viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory ...

. The finished portrait was still in Lawrence's studio at his death in 1830. Today the painting is part of the

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic List of British royal residences, royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King ...

and hangs in the

Waterloo Chamber The Waterloo Chamber, dating from 1830 to 1831, is a large room in Windsor Castle dedicated to the military defeat of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte by United Kingdom, British, Kingdom of Prussia, Prussian, Russian, and Austrian forces und ...

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...

along with portraits of other European leaders of the era, many of them painted by Lawrence.

References

Bibliography

* Levey, Michael. ''Sir Thomas Lawrence''. Yale University Press, 2005. * Wagar, Chip. ''Double Emperor: The Life and Times of Francis of Austria''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait of Francis I of Austria 1819 paintings Paintings by Thomas Lawrence Paintings in Windsor Castle Cultural depictions of Francis I of Austria Portraits of men