(1843), J. Paul
Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Winterhalter contrasted sumptuous fabrics and vivid colors against creamy flesh to heighten the sensuality of the pose, the model, and the luxuriant setting. In Paris, Winterhalter quickly became fashionable. He was appointed
court painter of
Louis-Philippe, the king of the French, who commissioned him to paint individual portraits of his large family. Winterhalter would execute more than thirty commissions for him. This success earned the painter the reputation of a specialist in dynastic and aristocratic portraiture, skilled in combining likeness with flattery and enlivening official pomp with modern fashion. However, Winterhalter's reputation in artistic circles suffered. The critics, who had praised his debut in the salon of 1836, dismissed him as a painter who could not be taken seriously. This attitude persisted throughout Winterhalter's career, condemning his work to a category of his own in the hierarchy of painting. Winterhalter himself regarded his first royal commissions as a temporary intermission before returning to
subject painting and the field of academic respectability, but he was a victim of his own success, and for the rest of his life he worked almost exclusively as a portrait painter. His success in this field made him rich. Winterhalter became an international celebrity enjoying royal patronage. in oriental costume'' (1854),
National Museum, Warsaw. Countess Potocka sat for this portrait in Paris, where she went after returning from a trip to the
Holy Land.
Róża Krasińska, who with her mother went to Paris, wrote that she was "a few times in the Winterhalter's studio, while the mother posed for her portraits". Among his many regal sitters was also
Queen Victoria. Winterhalter first visited England in 1842, and returned several times to paint Victoria,
Prince Albert and their growing family, painting at least 120 works for them, a large number of which remain in the
Royal Collection, on display to the public at
Buckingham Palace and other royal residences. On display at
Osborne House is
Florinda, given by Victoria as a birthday present for Albert in 1852. Winterhalter also painted a few portraits of the aristocracy in England, mostly members of court circles. The fall of Louis-Philippe in 1848 did not affect the painter's reputation. Winterhalter went to
Switzerland and worked in Belgium and England. '' (1855),
Château de Compiègne. Taking its inspiration from 18th-century bucolic scenes, this monumental composition sets Empress
Eugénie and her entourage against the backdrop of a shady clearing in a forest. However, the composition is very artificial and formal. The Empress, slightly to the left of center, is encircled by and dominates the group. Persistence saw Winterhalter survive from the fall of one dynasty to the rise of another. Paris remained his home until a couple of years before his death. In the same year, his marriage proposal was rejected, and Winterhalter remained a bachelor committed to his work. After the accession of
Napoleon III, his popularity grew. From then on, under the
Second Empire, Winterhalter became the chief portraitist of the imperial family and court of France. The French Empress
Eugénie became a favorite sitter, and she treated him generously. In 1855 Winterhalter painted his masterpiece:
Empress Eugénie Surrounded by her Ladies in Waiting. He set the French Empress in a
pastoral setting gathering flowers in a harmonious circle with her ladies in waiting. The painting was acclaimed and exhibited in the
Exposition Universelle (1855). It remains Winterhalter's most famous work. The composition shows a marked similarity to
Florinda and this gave rise to scandalous gossip that the Empress and her ladies had posed
déshabillé for the earlier painting. In 1852, he went to Spain to paint Queen
Isabella II with
her daughter. Russian aristocratic visitors to Paris also liked to have their portraits executed by the famous master. As the "Painter of Princes", Winterhalter was thereafter in constant demand by the courts of
Britain (from 1841), Spain, Belgium,
Russia,
Mexico, the German states, and France. During the 1850s and 1860s, Winterhalter painted a number of important portraits of Polish and Russian aristocrats. In 1857, he painted the portrait of
Tsarina Maria Alexandrovna. During this time he also painted portraits of members of the André family, including the art collector
Édouard André, Henriette André Walther, and Ernest André, which now hang in the
Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris. During the Second Mexican Empire in the 1860s, headed by
Maximilian I of Mexico, Winterhalter was commissioned to paint portraits of the Imperial couple. The Empress of Mexico,
Charlotte of Belgium was the daughter of
Louise-Marie of France, Queen of the Belgians, whom Winterhalter painted at the beginning of his career in France. Some of Winterhalter's paintings of the Mexican monarchs still remain in their Mexico City palace,
Chapultepec Castle, now the
National Museum of History. ==Last years==