Marie-Antoinette & her sisters

Here's a wonderful collection of portraits of Marie-Antoinette and her sisters from "History & Other Thoughts" blog today:
http://historyandotherthoughts.blogspot.com/2013/08/portraits-of-marie-antoinettes-sisters.html#.Uh0L6BbR3dk
Descriptions are included for each portrait.  Enjoy!

Wonderful! Thank you! 

They had so many problems and sufferings in their lives... it's far from the princess fairytales one would suspect. Antoinette had a happier marriage than Amalia and Carolina did, definitely. Carolina wrote exactly after she heard that Antoinette will getting married, that she feels sorry for her because the beginning of a marriage is "disastrous". (Where did I read it? I can't remember...  ) And Amalia who had to lose her love and mother at the same time, and Elisabeth who lost her beauty... oh, these pretty smiling girls on the portraits are so "human", if you think about their fates!
And anyway, I've also read (and also can't say where  ) that the other girls weren't jealous of Christina because she was permitted to marry her own choice. She was double-faced and often machinated against her sisters to receive another good point from their mother, while Carolina and Antonia were the straight ones. (Bad joke: literally, if you think about Christina's and her sister-in-law Isabella's "too deep" friendship...  ) After the death of Emperor Francis she manipulated the desperate Empress well enough to receive the permission for her marriage. So it wasn't simply "allowed", Maria Theresa was too weak after her husband's death to handle with other family cases. So I can understand why the other sisters disliked her methods and why Antonia-Antoinette didn't want to take her to the Little Trianon, where only her best friends were welcome.

Great commentary!

From Tiny-Librarian: http://tiny-librarian.tumblr.com/post/59585853101/a-portrait-done-by-martin-van-meytens-in-1763

A portrait of Marie-Antoinette's father Emperor Francis with a few of his numerous progeny.

"A portrait done by Martin van Meytens in 1763. It shows Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, and three of his children: Maria Anna, Maria Elisabeth, and Leopold."

Here's a lovely miniature I found last night of Maria Amalia and some of her children:


Painted about 1785, a group portrait of Empress Maria Theresa’s daughter, Archduchess of Austria and sister of Marie Antoinette of France, Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma. She’s pictured with four of her seven surviving children - Princess Maria Antonia (1774-1841), Princess Charlotte Maria (1777-1813), Prince Philip Maria (1783-1786) and Princess Antonia Louise (1784 - died in infancy).

This is great! I don't know how I missed this!! Thanks!!