By Eugênia Gorini Esmeraldo
Dona Tereza Cristina Maria de Bourbón was born in Naples, Italy, in 1822, and was married by proxy to Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, in her native city in May 1843. She only arrived in Rio de Janeiro on September 3rd of that year. The couple had four children. Following proclamation of the Republic in 1889, the imperial family was banished to Portugal where the empress died in the city of Oporto that very year. Portrait of Dona Tereza Cristina (Empress) is a full-body portrait painted when she was 42 years old. The empress is wearing a white satin ball gown with a tight bodice and full skirt featuring plant-motif embroidery in gold thread around the hem, a green cloak, also embroidered, crown, necklace, and bracelets. Excessive ornamentation, plus the hair in ringlets, the round face with a serious mien, and the emphasis on the skirt’s circumference lend a certain weight to the figure of the empress who is depicted with her right hand resting on a table. All the light is directed to the empress, keeping the austere room, which features heavy fringed curtains, gold-leafed furniture, and a flowered rug, rather obscure.
— Eugênia Gorini Esmeraldo, 1998
