Lisa, you really spoil us. Thank you so much for the picture of the Duchess of Kent as I have never seen that one before. As I have said elsewhere - boring I hear you say - I was fortunate enough to see the exhibition of Winterhalter's paintings when they were shown at the National Portrait Gallery in London some years ago. I can't describe how truly sublime they are in real life, not to mention huge.
I particularly love the portrait of Marie Alexandrovna; her understated toilette, the entwined ropes of pearls (real I imagine), her delicate and sensitive face that gives us a hint of her physical delicacy and an air of tristesse - I think that Winterhalter really caught the essence of the Empress with this portrait.
