Queen Maria Theresa

portrait

Martin van Meytens as a court painter had the permanent task of painting the portraits of the Emperor and the Queen, as well as of the various members of the imperial family. Since the decoration of various residences and institutes, gifts to foreign sovereigns, aristocrats and diplomats and various festive occasions made necessary several copies of the imperial portraits, these courtly representations were made in series by the workshop, and Meytens himself played only a minor or greater part in their execution. He had no occasion to make more than a study of a head after the model the Queen had neither the time nor patience to sit for the artist for a long time.

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About the Artist

Martin van, II Meytens

1695 – 1770

Austrian painter, member of a family of painters of Flemish origin (spelled also Mijtens; Mytens). He began his artistic studies with his father, the painter Martin Meytens the Elder, who had moved from The Hague to Sweden. He went rather early on a study trip. He visited London, Paris and Vienna, then he lived and worked for a long time in Italy (Rome, Turin). At the beginning he painted little enamel miniature portraits, and he changed to oil painting only around 1730, having settled in Vienna. Here he became very popular as a portrait painter in the circles of the court and the aristocracy. In 1732 be became a court painter, and in 1759 the director of the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts. Meytens was one of the most significant Austrian painters of representative Baroque courtly portrait, and through his pupils and followers his influence remained alive and widespread for a long time throughout the whole Empire. His personal virtues, varied interests, erudition and pleasant manners were highly appreciated by his contemporaries.

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