Situating Charlotte: Reading Politics in Portraits of Belgian Princess Charlotte, Vicereine of Lombardy-Venetia, Empress of Mexico
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Authors
MacNayr, Linda C.
Date
2009-11-25T18:28:43Z
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Charlotte of Saxe Coburg Gotha , Historical Portraiture
Alternative Title
Abstract
The political significance of portraits of Charlotte of Saxe Coburg Gotha (1840-
1927) has been obscured by her historical liminality and by romantic myths that have
prevailed since the late nineteenth century and influenced interpretations of her visual
representations. This thesis reassembles a wide range of images of Charlotte and
analyzes these as sequential representations of an individual participating, across diverse
cultures, in defining episodes of the nineteenth century. Strategies of allegory,
programmatic intertextuality, and revisionism are revealed when these images are read
within their political circumstances of production and complicate the dominance of a few
late, iconic portraits of Charlotte and their entrenched associations. The use of costume,
essential in certain portraits commissioned during Charlotte’s childhood in Belgium, is
revisited in images depicting her during a brief position as Vicereine of Lombardy-
Venetia and in another dating from her role - of equal brevity but indelible historical
resonance - as Empress of Mexico. The significance of dress is explored in relation to
agency and political influence and as demonstrating compliance with, or negotiation of,
gender conventions. Charlotte’s public life was abruptly terminated upon her 1866 return
to Europe by a diagnosis of ‘madness.’ Napoleon III was withdrawing troops supporting
the Mexican Empire and her journey was made seeking to reverse this decision. I
speculate a painting by French artist Edouard Manet allegorically records this episode of
Charlotte’s life and that other factors relating to this episode subsequently influenced the
erasure of her imperial images until their reappearance in the twentieth century.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D, Art History) -- Queen's University, 2008-11-28
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