Marie Antoinette portrait actually her sister, Oxford research finds

A well-known portrait of Marie Antoinette as a baby is absolutely of her sister, new analysis has discovered.

Swiss painter Jean Etienne Liotard’s distinctive drawing of the final queen of France from 1762 has lengthy formed the way in which teachers noticed her early years.

But Prof Catriona Seth, from the University of Oxford, now believes the art work possible depicts the queen’s older sister Maria Carolina, who later grew to become Queen of Naples.

She additionally suspects a separate drawing from the identical Liotard assortment, beforehand regarded as of Maria Carolina, is in reality a younger Marie Antoinette.

In the drawing beforehand thought to depict Marie Antoinette, she is seven years previous, holding a shuttle used for weaving and staring straight on the viewer with a decided look in her eyes.

This had been interpreted by teachers as demonstrating that the long run queen was destined for a lifetime of significance.

Although she was “fascinated by the picture”, Prof Seth mentioned one thing had been “niggling” her about it.

While researching her newest ebook, which centres on portraits of Marie Antoinette, she revisited the Liotard assortment on the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire (MAH) in Geneva.

“The first clue came from what was thought to be a brooch worn by ‘Marie Antoinette’ in the portrait,” she defined.

The woman within the drawing is seen carrying the medal of a particular order of chivalry which was conferred on the siblings however Marie, because the youngest sibling, didn’t obtain hers till almost 4 years after the portrait was made.

“I worked out there had to have been a switch with the younger looking child in one of the other portraits being Marie Antoinette, rather than Maria Carolina,” Prof Seth mentioned.

The drawing now thought to depict the woman who would go on to change into the spouse of Louis XVI as a substitute reveals her carrying distinctive earrings and holding a rose.

Prof Seth mentioned she had since discovered a subsequent later image of Marie Antoinette with the identical earrings, whereas roses have been a “recurring feature of portraits throughout her life”.

Marc-Olivier Wahler, director on the MAH, mentioned: “While these remarkable portraits have been on display many times over the last 250 years, it will be extra special to see Marie Antoinette as she actually was, rather than mistaking her for her sister.”

Marie Antoinette was born in Austria in 1755 and despatched to France to be the bride of the long run King Louis XVI.

She was guillotined in 1793 on the age of 37, alongside along with her husband, on the peak of the French Revolution.