Queen Marie Antoinette of France and two of her Children Walking in The Park of Trianon

Marie-Antoinette walks in the park of the Petit Trianon with two of her children, the little group drawn up beside a rose bush, the Queen in a plain white muslin dress — the pastoral simplicity she cultivated at Trianon, and the very image of the private life she wished the world to see. The picture was painted as a gift to Gustav III of Sweden, who had chosen Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller himself and hoped the commission would launch his countryman in Paris, where the artist was working in the studio of Vien. Shown at the Salon of 1785, it was not well received: the sitter is said to have exclaimed, “What, is that supposed to be me?”, and critics objected that a queen could not be shown with her head so inclined. Wertmüller reworked the canvas before it was shipped to Sweden, where it entered the royal collection. The painting is held in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.