Kneeling Nun - recto and verso, by Martin van Meytens, circa 1731

Unconventional indiscretion...!

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Martin van Meytens (24 June 1695, Stockholm – 23 March 1770, Vienna), Dutch-Swedish painter best known for his portraits of Empress Maria Theresia of Austria, her family, and others at the Habsburg court. His clear, brightly-lit, precisely detailed style was exemplary of an Austrian "high-Rococo", and was very influential among his contemporaries. He began his artistic studies with his father, the painter Martin Meytens the Elder, who had moved from Hague to Sweden. The young artist went on to study in London, Paris, and Vienna, then lived and worked in Rome and Turin for some time. At the beginning of his career he painted enamel miniature portraits, but began working in oil around 1730, after having settled in Vienna. He became popular as a portrait painter with the Austrian aristocracy and in court circles. In 1732 be was appointed court painter, and in 1759 the director of the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts.