The prince's children - eight sons and daughters of the Prince of Liechtenstein, by Heinrich Füger, before 1818

 

Prince Aloys and Princess Henriette.

Princes Karl Johann and Franz de Paula.

Princess Ida and Prince Rudolf.

Princesses Sophie and Maria.

Johann I Joseph (Johann Baptist Josef Adam Johann Nepomuk Aloys Franz de Paula; 26 June 1760 - 20 April 1836) was Prince of Liechtenstein between 1805 and 1806 and again from 1814 until 1836. (In 1806, a victorious Napoléon incorporated Liechtenstein into the Confederation of the Rhine and made it a sovereign state, with Johann I Joseph as regent. After Napoléon's fall, Liechtenstein became a member of the German Confederation, with the prince's position restored.) In 1792 he married Landgravine Josepha of Fürstenberg-Weitra (21 June 1776 - 23 February 1848); the couple would have fourteen children:

Princess Maria Leopoldine Josepha Sophia Aemiliana (1793 - 1808)
Princess Karoline (1795 - died in infancy)
Prince Aloys Maria Josef Johann Baptista Joachim Philipp Nerius, later Aloys II, sovereign Prince of Liechtenstein (1796 - 1858)
Princess Sophie Marie Josepha (1798 - 1869)
Princess Maria Josepha (1800 - 1884)
Prince Franz de Paula Joachim Joseph (1802 - 1887)

Prince Karl Borromäus Johann Nepomuk Anton (1803 - 1871)

Princess Klothilda Leopoldina Josepha (1804 - 1807)
Princess Henriette (1806 - 1886)
Prince Friedrich Adalbert (1807 - 1885)

Prince Eduard Franz Ludwig (1809 - 1864)
Prince August Ludwig Ignaz (1810 - 1824)
Princess Ida Leopoldine Sophie Marie Josephine Franziska (1811 - 1884)
Prince Rudolf Maria Franz Placidus (1816 - 1848)

Prince Aloys, later Aloys II, sovereign Prince of Liechtenstein (1796 - 1858).

Princess Henriette (1806 - 1886).

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Prince Franz de Paula (1802 - 1887).

Prince Karl Johann (1803 - 1871).

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Princess Ida (1811 - 1884).

Prince Rudolf (1816 - 1848).

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Princess Sophie (1798 - 1869).

Princess Maria (1800 - 1884).

Of the eleven surviving children present at the time these portraits were completed, only eight are portrayed. I don't know if the three missing children - Prince Friedrich Adalbert, Prince Eduard Franz Ludwig, Prince August Ludwig Ignaz - were the subjects of an additional portrait - which has since been lost or is merely unavailable online - or whether it simply never existed. (It isn't a case of the youngest being left out, either, since the two youngest are included here.)

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Heinrich Friedrich Füger (8 December 1751, Heilbronn - 5 November 1818, Vienna), German portrait and history painter. Stylistically, his work was influenced Anton Raphael Mengs and Jacques-Louis David. Having studied in Stuttgart and Leipzig, he later traveled and spent time in Rome and Naples. On his return to Vienna he was appointed court painter, professor and vice-director of the Academy of Fine Arts, and in 1806 he was made director of the Belvedere Gallery. Aside from his history paintings, he was a popular portrait painter to the courts of Vienna and Naples.

Though deprived of the female form - purple georgette evening gown, Maison Sitich, circa 1912-14

I have a particular fondness for the evening gowns that appeared on the brink of WWI. Designs that were often following and expanding on trends that were sparked by the contemporary visual sensations of the Ballets Russes. They typically comprise a new, leaner silhouette; clinging draperies; layered and multi-level skirts; asymmetry; bold color and in often strongly contrasting combinations; delicate, but often lavish ornamentation.

Rather than being created from a sketched out and patterned design, these gowns frequently give the impression of having been built up bit by bit, layer upon layer, pieced together from often very disparate materials, until the designer at last called them finished. So fragmentary, as a result of their apparent manner of assembly, the completed garments often look put together out of extra yardage and scraps of lace and embroidery left about the workroom; indeed, that may even have sometimes happened.

This gown is an interesting example of the period. And I find it fascinating, to my eye equal parts exquisite and awkward. Layered over a cream colored silk undergarment, it's an assemblage of purple georgette, both plain and delicately beaded with clear glass beads, rather crude looking lace, and a sort of sash in black satin. The georgette is alternately draped and gathered up and left to hang loosely. Elements begin, stop abruptly, then start again. The massing of elements at the bust is a bit bulky, and then there's that odd "tail" of black satin hanging down at the back.

But then when I think of this worn? Gracing a woman's body, not the hard, armless mannequin? I think of it in motion. I imagine it moving very gracefully as the woman walked across the floor, as she descended a staircase, as she danced. I think with movement it would make a very delicate and feminine picture. 

It wasn't only the still-remembered couturiers like Lucile and Paquin and Boué Soeurs who created these ephemeral concoctions, but dressmakers all over the world, nearly all of them now forgotten. Such as the maker of this gown, a product of the Trieste branch of the Viennese Maison Sitich.

Acting the part - portraits of Clark Gable and Joan Crawford for "Possessed", photographs by Hurrell, 1931

 

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Above: One of the photographs used in promotional material - featuring a rather lurid synopsis.

Below: A lobby card incorporating a colorized version of one of Hurrell's portraits.

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A beautiful vintage print of the first portrait included in this post.