Violante Beatrice Of Bavaria (1673; 1731) Royal Highness, Great Granddaughter Of Henry Iv

Violante Beatrice of Bavaria (1673; 1731) Royal Highness, great-granddaughter of Henri IV

Canvas re-lined 87 cm by 67 cm
Old frame 98 cm by 78 cm

Violante Beatrice of Bavaria (1673; 1731) in official dress of Highness Royale (1691, 1731) is the great-granddaughter of Henri IV. Crown Princess of Tuscany, Governor of Siena, she is the daughter of Ferdinand Marie of Bavaria and Henriette Adelaide of Savoy. She married in 1688 to Crown Prince Ferdinando de Medici.
Our painting is an official portrait attributed to Georg Desmarée. The Royal Highness is dressed in a silk dress, over the shoulders a blue velvet coat with an ermine lapel (superbly rendered) and many jewels (rows of pearls, brooches, rubies...)

Georg Desmarées (1697; 1776)

Desmarées was born in 1697 in Stockholm, Sweden. He was the son of immigrant parents Jean Desmarées and Sara Meijteris. He was instructed in painting by a maternal relative, Martens Meytens (1648-1736), and later became his assistant. he began his career in 1720 by painting portraits of members of the Swedish aristocracy: Nicodemus Tessin the Younger (1723, Gripsholm castle), Madame Appelbom, wife of the admiral (1723, Stockholm), a painting executed in a rather severe and energetic, dark in color. In 1724, he stayed in Amsterdam and the following year in Nuremberg where he visited the drawing academy of Johann Preissler (1666-1737) then in Venice, where he received additional training from the Italian Rococo painter Giovanni Piazzetta. Preceded by a growing fame, he stayed in Bonn from 1735 to 1749, and from 1753 to 1754 with the Elector of Cologne, then in Kassel (1762), Würzburg (1763) and finally with the Elector of Mainz (1767) . In 1731, he married Barbara Marie Schuhbauer and moved to Munich where he became a court painter. His wife died in 1743. He continued to reside in Munich until his own death in 1776. Three portraits of the artist are on display at the Pinacothek in Munich, including a self-portrait and a portrait of his daughter. His art is distinguished by the sharpness of the drawing, which translates the character well, as well as by the seduction of his female portraits. During his long stay in Germany, Desmarées' style acquired a lively virtuosity with vivid effects of light and brilliant color.