Portraits were the most widely commissioned paintings in 18th-century France, but most portraits were produced for private consumption, and were therefore seen as inferior to art designed for public exhibition. The French Revolution endowed private values with an unprecedented significance, and the way people responded to portraits changed as a result. This is an area which has largely been ignored by art historians, who have concentrated on art associated with the public events of the Revolution. Seen from the perspective of portrait production, the history of art during the Revolution looks very different, and the significance of the Revolution for attitudes to art and artists in the 19th century and beyond becomes clearer.

This book analyzes the evolving interaction between court and media from an understudied perspective. Eight case studies focus on different European Empress consorts and Queen regnants from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, using a comparative, cross-media, and cross-period approach. The volume addresses a multitude of questions, ranging from how dynastic women achieved public prominence through their portraits; how their faces and bodies were moulded and rearticulated to fit varying expectations in the courtly public sphere; and the degree to which they, as female actors, engaged with or had agency within the processes of production and reception. In particular, two types of female rulership and their relationship to diverse media are contrasted, and lesser-known and under-researched dynastic women are spotlighted. Contributors: Christine Engelke, Anna Fabiankowitsch, Inga Lena Angstroem Grandien, Titia Hensel, Andrea Mayr, Alison McQueen, Marion Romberg, and Alison Rowley.