#ornate table

[preraphaelitepaintings]

Hearts are Trumps

Artist: Sir John Everett Millais (English, 1829–1896)

Date: 1872

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom

Description

Three sisters – Elizabeth, Diana and Mary – are playing cards. The game and the work’s title hint at competition over who would marry first, presenting courtship as a game that these women are learning to play. This was seen as important for woman at the time. Writer and art collector Walter Armstrong commissioned John Everett Millais to paint this portrait of his daughters. He hoped the painting would help to raise the social profile of his family. Millais borrowed the title and the composition from a popular photograph of the day.

[royalty-nobility]

Helene-Louise de Mecklembourg-Schwerin Duchess of Orléans and her Son

Artist: Hermann Goldschmidt (1802-1866) based on Frans Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873)

Date: 1848

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Museum of the Château, Fountainebleau, France

Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1814 – 1858) was a French Crown Princess after her marriage in 1837 to the eldest son of Louis Philippe I. She is known as the mother of the future Count of Paris and Duke of Chartres.

[portrait-paintings]

Portrait of Mrs. Ralph Sneyd (Mary Ellis Sneyd)

Artist: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (British, 1836–1912)

Date: 1889

Medium: Oil on panel

Collection: The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States

[paintingsandhistory]

George Washington (Lansdowne Portrait)

Artist: Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755-1828)

Date: 1796

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery / Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, United States

George Washington

George Washington (1732 - 1799), was unanimously elected the first president of the United States.

Before his election, he fought in the French and Indian War, commanded troops to victory in the Revolutionary War, and presided over the Constitutional Convention. As president, he installed the Supreme Court, proclaimed neutrality in the war between Britain and France, and suppressed the tax protest known as the Whiskey Rebellion. After serving two terms, Washington declined to run again. In his farewell address, he told the nation, “The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism.”

[royalty-nobility]

Helene-Louise de Mecklembourg-Schwerin Duchess of Orléans and her Son

Artist: Hermann Goldschmidt (1802-1866) based on Frans Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873)

Date: 1848

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Fontainebleau, National Museum of the Château, France

Description

Helene, Daughter of Prince Frederick of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1778-1819), was chosen to marry the heir to the throne Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orleans. Even if this couple was not the most glamorous, they both seemed to like each other. The arrival of this German princess in France sparked several remarks of suspicion that eventually then became more friendly. Columnist Delphine de Girardin wrote: "Still, Madame Duchess of Orléans has one great advantage over our wonderful ladies in Paris in that she has the air of a princess while they all appear like dolls" and the Countess of Boigne said: "I was able to tell the Duke of Broglie very conscientiously that I found her as charming as he expected. “ Everyone agreed on her kindness towards the royal entourage and her desire to be part of the family.

This portrait shows the Duchess of Orleans in full dress: Her ivory satin robe has a plunging neckline and the ankle-length skirt is lined with floral-patterned Brussels lace as her the satin shoes peak out the bottom. Her hair is styled in a headband below a lace headdress finished with blue satin ribbons.

[preraphaelitepaintings]

Isabella

Artist: John Melhuish Strudwick (British, 1849-1937)

Date: c. 1886

Date: Oil on board

Collection: Property from a Distinguished Private Collection

Description

The subject of the painting is taken from Keats's well known poem Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil, which in turn borrows its theme from Boccaccio's Decameron. Set in medieval Florence, the story tells how Isabella falls in love with Lorenzo, an employee in her brothers' business. Having hoped she would make a profitable marriage, the brothers are angry and murder Lorenzo, burying his body in the forest and telling Isabella that he has been sent away on urgent affairs. When Lorenzo's ghost appears to Isabella and reveals his true fate, she exhumes the body and cuts of his head, concealing it in a pot beneath a basil plant which she waters with her tears. Eventually the brothers discover and steal it, and Isabella dies of a broken heart.

[royalty-nobility]

Gustav III Dressed in his Coronation Attire

Artist: Alexander Roslin (Swedish, 1718–1793)

Date: n. d.

Medium: Oil painting

Collection: The Swedish State Portrait Collection, Gripsholm Castle, Mariefred, Sweden

King Gustav III

Gustav III (1746 – 1792), also called Gustavus III, was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792.

[royalty-nobility]

Portrait of Maria Theresa of Austria

Artist: Martin van Meytens (Swedish, 1695-1770) 

Date: c. 1755

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, United States

Maria Theresa of Austria

Maria Theresa (1717 – 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position in her own right. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Slavonia, Mantua, Milan, Moravia, Galicia and Lodomeria, Dalmatia, Austrian Netherlands, Carinthia, Carniola, Gorizia and Gradisca, Austrian Silesia, Tyrol, Styria and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and Holy Roman Empress.