Therese Countess Sternberg, née Stadion

The young Countess is presented before an intimated landscape and an extensive sky. She is decorated with jewelry, flowers and a Viennese shawl. Regarding structure and painting technique the portrait resembles the portraits by Daffinger which were very popular in Vienna between the late 1820's and the 1840's. In contrast to the English miniatures the Austrian miniatures of this period are characterized by mat colours. An inscription on the reverse of the typical Viennese "Biedermeier" frame identifies the sitter as Therese Countess Sternberg, née Stadion (1819-1893). She came from a distinguished family of the Viennese aristocracy and was the third of four children of Johann Philipp Franz Count Stadion Thannhausen and his wife Maria Kunigunde Countess Kesselstadt. In 1845 she married Zdenko Count Sternberg. 

D. O.