Portrait of an Elderly Lady with Lace Bonnet and Pink Ribbons

In the autumn of 1848 imperial troops retook Vienna from its revolutionaries, and the city then lived for years under a state of siege. This portrait is dated 1849, and nothing of it reaches the panel. The Belvedere's curators have observed that the revolution left its mark on painting only where the uprising itself was the subject, and not on how pictures were painted or composed. Here Eybl gives his attention to an older woman's bonnet, layers of cream lace with pink ribbon gathered at both sides and tied in a broad bow under her chin. A lace collar spreads over a green silk dress, and a red shawl slips from her shoulder. The date sits beside his signature in the lower right corner, written in shorthand as 849. Its companion, a portrait of a man, is dated a year later.