Francisca was born on 2 August 1824 in the Palace of São Cristóvão, in Rio de Janeiro, capital of the Empire of Brazil. Her name in full was Francisca Carolina Joana Carlota Leopoldina Romana Xavier de Paula Micaela Gabriela Rafaela Gonzaga. Through her father, Emperor Dom Pedro I, she was a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza (Portuguese: Bragança) and was referred to using the honorific "Dona" (Lady) from birth. Her mother was the Archduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria, daughter of Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor. Through her, Francisca was a niece of Napoleon Bonaparte and first cousin of Emperors Napoleon II of France, Franz Joseph I (Francis Joseph I) of Austria-Hungary and Don Maximiliano I (Maximilian I) of Mexico. Francisca married Prince François of Orléans, third son of Louis Philippe I and his Italian Queen Maria Amalia of Naples. François, called the Prince of Joinville, and Francisca married in Rio de Janeiro on 1 May 1843. The bride was 19, the groom 25. Her portrait was painted when she arrived in Paris, in 1844, by Ary Scheffer (coll. Musée de la Vie romantique, Paris). Their only daughter Princess Françoise of Orléans married her first cousin Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres and became the mother of the Orléanist pretender Prince Jean, Duke of Guise. Her son Pierre never married, but had two illegitimate children by a married woman. When the Orléans family fled France, they settled in England living at Claremont; It was there that Francisca gave birth to a still born daughter in 1849; the next year, the exiled King Louis Philippe I died himself. After the fall of the House of Bonaparte of the Second Empire, the Orléans family returned to France; Francisca herself died in Paris aged 73. Her husband outlived her by two years, dying in Paris in 1900.

The author of this fine portrait is French painter, designer, decorator, engraver and teacher Armand Julien Pallière (1784: Bordeaux, France – 1862 idem), who spent many years in Brazil and created a seria of portraits of Brazilian high society and Royal house..

As his younger brother Louis-Vincent-Léon (1787-1820), Armand-Julien Pallière formed with his father, the Bordeaux painter Jean-Baptiste Pallière, before joining the studio of the painter François-André Vincent in Paris. He competed many times for the Prix de Rome without success, while his brother was finally awarded in 1812. Armand-Julien exhibits at the Salon from 1808 until his departure in 1817 for South America. During the voyage aboard the SMS Augusta, he met Marie-Leopoldine of Austria (1797-1826), the future Empress of Brazil. This meeting opened him the doors of the Brazilian court where the future Emperor Peter I (1798-1834) commissioned a series of portraits as well as several views of the capital Rio de Janeiro.

Here is the quotation of the detailed artist‘s biography from the Brazilian Art Encyclopedia ( link: http://www.brasilartesenciclopedias.com.br/nacional/palliere_armand.htm): „.. He lived in a family of artists: his father was the engraver Jean Pallière, and his brother the painter Louis Vincent Leon Pallière. He married a daughter of the architect Grandjean de Montigny, one of the members of the French artistic mission, who arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1816. His son was the painter, designer and lithographer Jean Leon Pallière. Armand undertook his artistic formation in Paris and, as he commanded the academic tradition of the time, he devoted himself preferently to historical painting and portrait, taking part in the Paris Hall in 1808, 10 and 14. She was a talented and competent retractist, but her drawings and watercolor, sometimes simple notes, are equally important to us. He was a member of the Academies of Fine arts of France, the Netherlands and Belgium. 1817 – arrived in Rio de Janeiro on a battleship, which accommodated the entourage of Princess Maria Leopoldina. During the trip he performed some sketches. On the order of Emperor João VI, in the same year he painted panoramas of the regions of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. He probably traveled to Lisbon during this period. 1818 – traced the urbanization plan of Vila Real da Praia (today Niterói). In Brazil was one of the pioneers of lithography, for this using the workshop of the Military archive of Rio de Janeiro, being assigned to him drawings for decorations. 1821 – Painted the first panorama of the city of São Paulo and performed several portraits such as the Empress D. Amelia of Leuchtenberg, which since 2002 belongs to the Imperial Museum, Petrópolis, RJ; The portrait of Empress Leopoldina; And the portrait of Dom Pedro II still a child, next to a military drum. 1822 – married the daughter of Grandjean de Montigny. He gave drawing lessons at the Royal Military Academy. 1825 – he was appointed captain of the Army Corps of Engineers. 1826 – recorded the allegorical lithography to the death of emperor João VI, offered to Emperor Pedro I, which is part of the collection of the National Library of Rio de Janeiro. 1830 – he returned to France with his wife and son Jean Leon. 1926 – A French collector found in an antique dealer in Bordeaux an album with lithographs, Feather-billed drawings and watercolor by Armand, executed when his stay in Brazil.

Provenance: purchased from a private estate in Fontainebleau, France.

Literature: artist lexicons by Thieme/Becker (in German), by Benezit (in French); in on-line: Brazilian Art Encyclopedia ( in Portuguese); Belluzzo, Ana Maria Moraes. The Travelers ' Brazil. Metalivros, Sao Paulo, 1994. Inscription: signed right in the middle A.Palliere (A and P ligated). Technique: oil on canvas. Luxuriousy original period gold-plated frame. Measurements: unframed w 8 1/2" x 29 1/2" (21,5 x 25 cm); framed 14 1/8" x 15 1/8 " (36 x 38,5 cm). Condition: in good condition, professional cleaned, no paintlosses or inpaintings, original canvas