The Imperial Count Moritz Christian Fries with his Wife Maria Theresia Josepha and his Son Moritz

In 1805 Austria and Napoleon's France were at war, and by November French troops were in Vienna. Around that same time a young Viennese banker, Count Moritz von Fries, had his family painted by François Gérard, the portraitist of Napoleon's circle. The canvas is over two metres tall, yet it plays at being informal. The count is in riding clothes. His wife, Maria Theresia, a princess of the Hohenlohe family, sits in a plain white high-waisted dress with no jewellery. Their son Moritz, about a year old, lies naked in his cot. The wealth shows elsewhere, in the classical arches, her patterned cashmere shawl and the blue velvet cushion under her feet. Fries also supported Beethoven, who dedicated his Seventh Symphony to him. In 1826 his bank failed, and his collection of more than 300 paintings went to auction to pay the creditors.