Self-Portrait
1860
Franz Xaver Winterhalter was the go-to painter for 19th-century royalty, capturing everyone from Queen Victoria to Empress Elisabeth of Austria in glowing, idealized light. In this 1860 self-portrait, he presents himself as a serious, distinguished gentleman with fashionable mutton-chop sideburns, mirroring the elegance of his high-society clients. He was so incredibly popular that he ran a large workshop to handle the flood of commissions, essentially acting as the Victorian era's version of a high-end celebrity photographer.
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