Portrait of Leonilla, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn

Leonilla, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, reclines on a low Turkish sofa on a veranda that looks out over a lush tropical landscape, in a pose borrowed from the harem scenes and odalisques of the day. Only her unassailable social position made it possible for Franz Xaver Winterhalter to use so sensual a pose for a formal full-length portrait in Paris in 1843. The princess, celebrated for her beauty and intellect, wears a luxurious gown of ivory silk moiré belted with a pink sash, a deep purple mantle falling across her arms; under carefully arched brows her heavy-lidded eyes meet the viewer while she toys with the pearls at her neck. Winterhalter played the sumptuous fabrics and vivid colours against the tone of the flesh to heighten the whole effect. A German-born painter who became the favourite portraitist of the European courts — Queen Victoria, Napoleon III, and half the royal houses of the continent — he signed the picture on the base of the column at the right, “Winterhalter. / Paris 1843.” The painting is held in the J. Paul Getty Museum.