Flower Garland with Relief of the Madonna

Low on the left, the painter signed with her first name only, "Pauline", and the year 1834. Two years later the imperial picture gallery in Vienna bought the canvas directly from her. It remained with the imperial collection, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, until it moved to the Belvedere in 1987.

The picture works as a double illusion. In the centre sits what looks like a carved stone relief of Mary with the Christ child and the young John the Baptist, set into dark scrolling ornament, and all of it is paint. Around it hang roses, hyacinths, narcissi and many other blooms, each leaf and petal drawn with close attention. They could never have been cut on the same day. Hyacinths and narcissi flower in early spring, and garden roses only weeks later.