Archduchess Maria Anna (1835-1840)

[Agneschen]

Does anyone have info / portraits of Kaiser Franz Josef's only sister, Maria Anna "ännchen", who died of epilepsy in infancy ? I would like to know more about her short life.
Thanks !

[Silja]

Hi Agneschen!

There's some information about her in Conte Corti's Vom Kind zum Kaiser. Die Jugend Kaiser Franz Josefs und seiner Brüder. It quotes a lot from Archduchess Sophie's letters to her mother.

[Linnea]

Maybe you haven´t seen this portrait of Maria Anna yet, Agneschen.


And here some trivia on Maria Anna:
Born in October 1835 as the only daughter of Archduke Franz Carl of Austria and his Bavarian wife Sophie, Maria Anna seemed robust at first, but soon became sickly. The doctors thought that Maria Anna had some sort of "teeth fever", but her mother believed right from the start that her daughter was an epileptic.
Maria Anna died after heavy epilectic seizures in Vienna in February 1840 aged only four years. Her mother was inconsolable.

[Sissi]

Sophie adored her daughter and never really recover from her death, the death of her grand child Sophie daughter of Francis Joseph and Sisi reminded her of the death of her litte MArie Anne.

[MarieCharlotte]

... and here is a painting I love so much.  

It was painted by Peter Fendi and it shows some of the grandchildren of Queen Caroline of Bavaria.
Maria Anna is the little girl who is standing on this footstool quite in the middle of the picture. The girl who is sitting in the chair is Duchess Helene in Bavaria.

[Silja]

 I have read some letters written by Archduchess Sophie to her mother in Sophie - die heimliche Kaiserin by Gerd Höller (though I do not know whether this bio is absolutely relevant).

I've got a copy of Holler's book, too. It's the only biography on Sophie there is, so for this reason alone it's relevant  . I think it's fairly good, but could concentrate more on its subject rather than the political situation, which is somewhat overstressed I thought.

Conte Corti's book on Franz Josef's youth is certainly simplistic in style but as I said, it contains a lot of quotations from Sophie's letters to her mother - more than Holler's as far as I remember - and some lovely pictures,  among them another one of Maria Anna by Joseph Kriehuber.

[Princess Susan]

... and here is a painting I love so much.  

It was painted by Peter Fendi and it shows some of the grandchildren of Queen Caroline of Bavaria.
Maria Anna is the little girl who is standing on this footstool quite in the middle of the picture. The girl who is sitting in the chair is Duchess Helene in Bavaria.

Does anybody know identity of another children, except little Archdachess Maria Anna and Duchess Helene of Bavaria?

[MarieCharlotte]

The book Bayerns Königshaus by Martha Schad says that this gorgeous painting was done in about 1837.

In 1837 Queen Caroline had the following grandchildren:

Ludwig Wilhelm Duke in Bavaria (born 1831)

Helene Duchess in Bavaria (born 1834)

Elisabeth Duchess in Bavaria (born 1837)

Franz Joseph, Archduke of Austria (born 1830)

Ferdinand Maximilian, Archduke of Austria (born 1832)

Carl Ludwig Archduke of Austria (born 1833)

Maria Anna Archduchess of Austria (born 1835)

Marie Princess of Saxony (born 1827)

Albert Prince of Saxony (born 1828)

Elisabeth Princess of Saxony (born 1830)

Ernst Prince of Saxony (born 1831)

Georg Prince of Saxony (born 1832)

Sidonie Princess of Saxony (born 1834)

Anna Princess of Saxony (born 1836)

On this painting we have seven boys and only three girls. So I guess Peter Fendi painted all grandsons of Queen Caroline, who were alive in 1837, but only the eldest daughters of Caroline's daughters Amalie (married to Johann of saxony), Sophie (married to Archduke Franz Carl) and Louise (married to Max in Bavaria). So the children could be: Ludwig Wilhelm in Bavaria, Franz Joseph of Austria and his brothers Ferdinand Maximilian and Carl Ludwig as well as Albert, Georg and Ernst of Saxony. I also think that the eldest sons of Caroline's daughters (Franz Joseph, Albert and Ludwig Wilhelm) wear something blue. The girls could be Helene in Bavaria (eldest daughter of Louise), Maria Anna of Austria (only daughter Sophie) and Marie Princess of Saxony (eldest daughter of Amalie).

My identification (left to right):


 
Carl Ludwig, Georg, (standing behind them) Ludwig Wilhelm, Franz Joseph, Ernst (looking at his brother Albert), Ferdinand Max, Helene, Maria Anna, Marie, Albert

[Princess Susan]

Thank you very much for identification! It's indeed very nice painting.

I also like pictures of children from painter Charles Scolik.

Especially two of them are my favorite.

Propably you know painting of three little archdukes: Franz Joseph, Ferdinand Max and Ludwig Karl.
I guess, this painting is from 1834 or 1835. Archduke Ludwig Karl looks on this picture like a little girl.
Ferdinand Max sits on sofa with book on his knees. And Franz Joseph holds on his brother Max over his
shoulders.

Second painting is from 1844, when archdukes were in age between 14 and 11. Picture was arrange in
wood, presumably near lake. They are dressed in withe trousers and black blazers.

I've tried to find out those pictures on internet quite long time. So if you have it, I will be realy grateful to
you for sending.

Susan

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

What was the exact reason for the death of the little girl? Is a pity that she died so young, her mom
suffered very much for her, her only daughter

[Princess Susan]

She had epilepsy and since her birth, she was rather weak child.

[Rani]