French school circa 1800 Portrait of Marie Caroline of Habsburg, Queen of Naples and Sicily Oil on canvas (Restorations) H: 131.5 cm, W: 98.0 cm Provenance: Private collection, Ile-de-France Queen Marie-Caroline of Naples and Sicily (1752-1814), Archduchess of Austria, Princess Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, Princess of Tuscany is shown here comfortably seated in a rounded-back armchair upholstered in blue satin and leaning against a finely worked writing table, made around 1772 by the French cabinetmaker Martin Carlin and the porcelain painter Charles Nicolas Dodin, and now on display at the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon. This luxurious piece of furniture was made for the Countess du Barry before being acquired by Queen Marie-Antoinette, who later passed it on to her sister Marie-Caroline. The delicacy of the depiction of the furniture does not overshadow the portrait. The artist succeeded in transcribing the softness of the figure remarkably well. Her headdress and rosy cheeks brighten and soften her face. The daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and Francis I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, she married King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Sicily in 1768. Our portrait should be compared with the one on display at the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples, in which the model is wearing a miniature of her husband. French school circa 1800 H: 131.5 cm, W: 98.0 cm Queen Maria Carolina of Naples and Sicily (1752-1814), Archduchess of Austria, Princess Royal of Hungary and Bohemia and Princess of Tuscany is shown here comfortably seated in a rounded-back armchair upholstered in blue satin and leaning against a finely worked writing table, made around 1772 by the French cabinetmaker Martin Carlin and the porcelain painter Charles Nicolas Dodin, and now on display at the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon. This luxurious piece of furniture was made for the Countess du Barry before being acquired by Queen Marie-Antoinette, who later passed it on to her sister Marie-Caroline. The delicacy of the depiction of the furniture does not overshadow the portrait. The artist succeeded in transcribing the softness of the figure remarkably well. Her headdress and rosy cheeks brighten and soften her face. The daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and Francis I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, she married King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Sicily in 1768. Our portrait should be compared with the one on display at the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples, in which the model is wearing a miniature of her husband.