Portrait of Maria Theresia, Queen of Saxony

This print is a copy in reverse of Ludwig Theodor Zöllner’s 1829 lithographic portrait of Maria Theresa (or Maria Theresia), Queen of Saxony (1767-1827), itself based directly on a drawing by Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein dated to 1827, the year of Maria Theresa's ascension to the throne and, six months later, her death.

Published by J. H. G. Rau of Dresden, the present work was produced and circulated in the wake of a turbulent period that witnessed the Napoleonic Wars, the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, and, eventually, the establishment of the German Confederation. The Kingdom of Saxony, which had fallen under French control during the wars, emerged much diminished, with sixty percent of its territory ceded to Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. Against continual debate about the political and religious borders of the Saxon state, visual representations of Maria Theresa--daughter of former Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II--may have held special significance.