Wittelsbach

1867 · 73235 — 1867. Fine. 1867 6.20 x 9.70 cm une photographie PHOTOGRAPH Photographic Portrait of Sissi Elisabeth de Wittelsbach empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary 1867 6.2 x 9.7 cm photograph Original photograph on albumin paper showing Sissi in visiting card format laid down on card. No publication markings. A rare medallion photograph showing Sissi at the age of 30. She is shown in a studied pose bust in profile and face turned three-quarters towards the viewer. We know that Sissi was particularly fond of diamonds arranged in star shapes and is here shown with a star-shaped diadem in her hair and a star-shaped ruby creation around her neck presenting her the way she wished to be seen. With her auburn hair and brown eyes her mother told her she was not beautiful in the sense that she did not conform to the strictures of beauty of the age being neither blonde nor brunette. Her beauty was later universally acclaimed however. Her flowery dress allows us to suppose that she is posing here in the dress she would wear during the celebration of her marriage to the Emperor Franz Josef the theme that she had given the wedding being flowers and diamonds. This photograph certainly retouched shows the control in which her image was held and presents a perfect Empress recorded for posterity. This photographic portrait was posed for at the same time as the painting in the Sissi Museum in Vienna which is exactly the same though the visiting-card photo was certainly destined for a different use than the painting itself. It was later made into postcards from the negative. unknown