Marie Anne Marguerite Joséphine Baroness von Wacquant-Geozelles, née de Wolff

Baroness von Wacquant-Geozelles had her portrait painted by Daffinger in the mid-1830s in a black dress with a violet cape trimmed with fur. Over her left shoulder, she is wearing the bright blue band with the silver border of the Bavarian Order of St Anna; the matching cross is attached with a blue bow. Baroness von Wacquant-Geozelles was a canoness in this lady’s order, which has been secular since the early 19th century. Daffinger’s miniature was copied by various artists.¹ Since the painting in the Tansey Collection is the only one bearing his signature, we can assume that it is the original. The woman portrayed in the miniature had attained the title of baroness after her marriage to Johann Peter Theodor Baron von Wacquant-Geozelles (also known as Jean Pierre Théodore Vacant, 1754–1844) in 1825.²
Her husband hailed from Briey in Lorraine and was a faithful servant to the Austrian Emperor as lieutenant general and adviser. He was previously married to the sitter’s aunt, Marie Christine France Xavière Claudine de Wolff, who died in 1824. Both marriages remained childless; Baron von Wacquant-Geozelles applied to have the aristocratic title he had received in 1810 passed on in the hereditary line of his brothers. Marie Anne Marguerite Joséphine died on 10 March 1844 in Vienna; her husband died only eight days later.
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