Technical notes: The support consists of a single piece of evenly and densely woven plain weave fabric. The selvages that are still present on the top and bottom tacking edges of the painting enable the breadth of the fabric to be calculated as 99.2 cm. The fabric has 11 warp threads and 15 weft threads per cm. There are tacking edges along all four sides and they lack ground and paint layers. There is cusping along all four sides. The painting has not been trimmed. The painting has been lined. The ground consists of a brownish-red layer applied evenly to cover the structure of the fabric. The paint layer is applied thinly and in the background does not entirely cover the ground. The paint layer is opaque in the flesh tones, the gown and the drapery. The elevation of the highlights is not integrated with the rest of the paint layer in the jewellery in the hair, around the neck nor in the ornamental jewellery on the gown. These items seem to lie as separate sections over the underlying paint layer. In Luyckx’s paintings, elevated sections of paint are integrated more completely with the underlying layers.

Along the upper section of the painting near the tacking edge there is a large area of retouching. In places there are retouches to the drapery, the face and the gown. The painted oval has been retouched heavily. Numerous small and large retouches are present in the background and along the left and right edges.

Provenance: Gripsholm Castle; transferred from Gripsholm 1866. Bibliography: Cat. Gripsholm I, Stockholm 1951, p. 163.

The subject, Maria Anna, daughter of Emperor Ferdinand III, is portrayed knee-length in a lavishly decorated gown with slit sleeves, a flat ruff and with numerous ornaments in the form of jewellery, several necklaces and a jewelled headband. Her hair is carefully arranged with stiff locks and a static coiffure. Next to the subject a stiff hanging drapery is depicted. The room lacks any other decoration. Lining has led to flattening of the impasto areas. This painting is an imitation of Frans Luyckx’s style by an anonymous artist.