Portrait miniatures

Following the two exhibitions of the Liaunig collection of portrait miniatures – which has now grown to over 400 pieces – first from 2015 to 2017, and subsequently from 2020 to 2026, each with a different "programme", newly acquired miniatures as well as those not yet exhibited will now be presented from the end of April 2026 in the spacious display cases in the museum’s basement. Of the 100 exhibits now on display, 70 have been scientifically described in Catalogue Volume III. 

This exhibition is dedicated to the collector couple Herbert and Eva Liaunig, who passed away in 2023 and 2025 respectively. 

Miniatures are usually painted using the highly light-sensitive watercolour technique and are therefore rarely exhibited to the public by museums. Individual pieces are only made available to interested visitors on request in the study rooms, as is the case, for example, at the Louvre and the Albertina. Thanks to state-of-the-art museum technology, the Museum Liaunig is currently one of the few museums in the world, and the only one in Austria, where such a large number of significant miniatures are made publicly accessible to the interested public.

Portrait miniatures are, as the name suggests, hand-painted portraits of the smallest and tiniest dimensions, ranging in height from less than a centimetre to around twenty or twenty-five centimetres, or sometimes even larger. From the mid-16th century until the invention and spread of photography in the mid-19th century, they served precisely this purpose: to enable one to carry with them a likeness of a loved one that was as accurate as possible, or to form an idea of the appearance of a person one did not yet know but was likely to meet (provided the image was already appealing). Thus, until the 19th century, long before the era of online dating, the exchange of portrait miniatures was the only way to ascertain, prior to what were mostly arranged marriages, whether the bride and groom – who had often never met – actually found each other attractive (which, ultimately, was mostly irrelevant).

In the context of the separations between people who are close to one another – particularly couples and family members – which are once again so prevalent today, portrait miniatures served as placeholders for the absent individuals, much like the photo in a wallet or the selfie on an iPhone does today. As a result, miniatures played a significant role, particularly in times of crisis and war. It is striking that the Liaunig miniature collection contains particularly expressive portraits from the politically turbulent period of the English Civil War, during the time of Oliver Cromwell in the mid-17th century, as well as numerous portraits from the years of the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars, between 1790 and 1815.

The first display cases in the exhibition are dedicated to rare 17th-century English and French watercolour miniatures. The finest of the British works, often signed with gold monograms, are by the renowned artists Peter Oliver, John Hoskins and Samuel Cooper. For the first time, exceptionally rare French works from the "Grand Siècle" are also on display, including two portraits of the "Sun King", Louis XIV of France (1638–1715), painted by his court miniaturist Samuel Bernard.

The subsequent Rococo period is superbly represented by a portrait of a man by the Venetian pastel and miniature painter Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757), who was already celebrated in her own time. The Polish-German all-round artist Daniel Chodowiecki (1726–1801) is also represented in the collection for the first time, with a signed double portrait of two Rococo ladies reading. Two historically interesting miniatures in the collection also date from this period: one depicts Elisabeth Christine, "the woman from Braunschweig", mother of Empress Maria Theresa, painted in widow’s attire by court painter Antonio Bencini. The fine portrait of Maria Theresa’s brother-in-law, Duke Karl Alexander of Lorraine, is attributed to the imperial court painter Martin van Meytens.

After years of searching, works by the Swedish artists Peter Adolf Hall (1739–1793) and Niklas Lafrensen (1737–1807) – both of whom enjoyed success at the court of Versailles – have finally been acquired. Lafrensen’s portrait depicts the ill-fated King Gustav III of Sweden, painted in 1792, the very year of his horrific assassination at a masked ball. Lafrensen had fled his adopted home of France in haste after the French Revolution had robbed him of his best Parisian clients – now he was also to lose his Swedish patron.

The fall of the French monarchy and the subsequent wars of the young republic fuelled the production of portrait miniatures: soldiers took portraits of their loved ones into battle and left their own behind for their families. Particularly characteristic of this trend is the pair of miniatures of the brothers Baptiste and Antoine Macips from Versailles, both painted by the famous Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767–1855) in 1793. Whilst the very young Baptiste had enlisted as a volunteer in the Revolutionary Army and died just one year after the miniature was created, his brother Antoine survived these dramatic years. The period of Emperor Napoleon’s reign from 1804 to 1815, characterised by virtually constant warfare, is well represented in the exhibition with signed works by François Dumont, Nicolas-François Dun, Jean-Désiré Muneret and Jean-Pierre Frédéric Barrois.

The museum display cases dedicated to the subsequent, more tranquil Biedermeier period feature portraits from France, Germany and Austria. Alongside miniatures by the Viennese star miniaturist Heinrich Friedrich Füger, the "Austrian" display cases feature a portrait of a child gazing reproachfully – this is the Duke of Reichstadt (1811–1832), the ill-fated only son of Emperor Napoleon from his second marriage to Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria. Painted in 1821 by Felice Schiavoni during the child’s quasi-imprisonment at the Viennese court of his grandfather, Emperor Franz I of Austria, the boy was regarded by the desperate supporters of Napoleon I after the latter’s death as "Emperor Napoleon II". This political dilemma was to be resolved by the boy’s early death at the age of just 21. He died of tuberculosis in Schönbrunn in 1832. 

The same illness brought an end to the short yet thoroughly eventful life of Viktor von Metternich (1803–1829), the only surviving son of State Chancellor Metternich from his first marriage. Sent by his father to Paris for a minor post at the Paris embassy as an "attaché", Viktor fell victim to a notorious seductress. His public, adulterous relationship with the Parisian socialite Marquise Henriette de Castries, who bore him an illegitimate son, exhausted the young man. Viktor returned to Vienna, where – already marked by illness – he had his portrait painted one last time by State Chancellor Metternich’s favourite miniaturist, Moritz Michael Daffinger (1790–1849). The miniature was sent to Paris, where it remained, unnoticed, in the possession of the Marquise’s family (who had by then found solace with other men in many places) and was acquired from the family’s collection for the Liaunig Collection in 2024, almost a century later.

The watercolour miniatures, some of which are over four centuries old, are displayed under very subdued lighting in order to preserve these rare treasures for future generations of visitors. In stark contrast, however, are the thirty or so enamel miniatures from the Liaunig Collection, most of which have been newly acquired and are being exhibited for the first time.

Completely impervious to even the strongest light and temperature fluctuations, the motto here is "spot on". Created in Great Britain, Switzerland and Germany between the early 18th and mid-19th centuries, the collection features famous artists such as Charles Boit, Georg Friedrich Dinglinger, Christian Friedrich Zincke, Jacques Thouron and Henry Bone, whose 1794 portrait of the 2nd Earl Grey adorns the cover of Volume III of the miniature catalogue. A particular pride of the collection are the 18th-century Saxon-Polish princely enamel miniatures: King Augustus the Strong (1670–1733) is represented in three small, jewel-like portraits, as are his favourite illegitimate daughter, Countess Anna Orzelska, and his grandson, Crown Prince Friedrich Christian of Saxony, who was to reign for just 74 days in 1763 before falling victim to smallpox.

Dr. Bodo Hofstetter
(curator)

Collection "Portrait miniatures III“
Curator: Bodo Hofstetter
26 April to 31 October 2026 ∙ Wednesday to Sunday 10 am to 6 pm
Museum Liaunig ∙ 9155 Neuhaus/Suha 41 ∙  Austria ∙ +43 4356 211 15
office@museumliaunig.at ∙ www.museumliaunig.at