MARIE-ANTIONETTE OF SPA RESORTS: Empress Eugénie and the Search for an Imperial Identity with Eugene Barilo von Reisberg

Join Eugene Barilo von Reisberg for another adventure in royal iconography as he explores the hidden meanings and semantic connotations in portraits of Eugenie, Empress of the French (1826-1920), by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873), and uncovers a secret language of visual symbolism in the details of dress, jewellery, and accessories that transmit messages of social status, imperial power, dynastic ambitions, and political aspirations.

Eugene Barilo von Reisberg is a Melbourne-based arts writer, curator, and blogger. His expertise on Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873), a 19th century German-born international court portraitist, is widely recognised, and he has contributed numerous articles and presented papers on the artist in Australia and internationally. He is currently pursuing a doctoral thesis on the artist at the University of Melbourne.

Franz Xaver Winterhalter, The Empress Eugenie Holding Louis Napoleon, the Prince Imperial on her Knees, 1857