Parques de Sintra acquires new pieces for the National Palace of Queluz, notably a new portrait of King João VI

19 Nov 2024

With the aim of enhancing the collection of the National Palace of Queluz, Parques de Sintra has bought three important new pieces that will contribute to the historical interpretation of this monument and its era. The company acquired a previously unseen portrait of King João VI, when he was still Prince Regent, by the renowned painter Henri-François Riesener. Another important purchase is a clock contemporary to the French Revolution with a surprising connection to King Louis XVI in that it belonged to Queen Carlota Joaquina. These acquisitions, which represented a total investment of around 100,000 euros, are completed with a painting of the Virgin Mary signed by Princess Maria Francisca Benedita, a rare testimony to her interest in this art.

An unseen portrait of a king who hated posing for painters

In March of this year, a portrait of King João VI as yet unaccounted for appeared at auction in Germany and has since been acquired by Parques de Sintra for the National Palace of Queluz, a monument whose history is deeply linked to the life of this monarch.

The work, which probably dates from 1815, is by the painter Henri-François Riesener, uncle of Eugéne Delacroix, who, among other celebrities, portrayed Napoleon Bonaparte, the Empress, and Prince Eugenio de Beauharnais. It bears many similarities to the portrait of King João VI that belongs to the Royal Treasury Museum but was painted earlier, depicting the monarch when he was still Prince Regent symbolically pointing towards mainland Portugal on a globe that is resting on a map representing Brazil; a gesture of political affirmation, in a clear allusion to the union of the two territories.

According to research carried out by the team from the National Palace of Queluz, the painting was commissioned by the Marquis of Marialva, Portugal's ambassador in Paris at the time, and was made on the basis of visual references such as engravings and the oral description the Marquis made of the king, since Riesener never went to Brazil, where the Royal Family had resided since 1807, following the French invasions.

Moreover, it is understood that King João VI did not enjoy posing for portraits.

As part of the museographic revisions currently being prepared for the monument, the work will soon be exhibited in the chambers that belonged to King João VI.

The curious clock that belonged to Queen Carlota Joaquina

Queen Carlota Joaquina, wife of King João VI, is another central figure in the history of the National Palace of Queluz, which was her home from a very young age. The monument's collection now includes another object that belonged to her and has a curious connection to King Louis XVI of France: a French-made clock which, according to research carried out by the Palace's team, was produced in 1790, following the French Revolution (which took place in 1789) and before Louis XVI's death (1793).

Almost as a kind of model, the neoclassical clock replicates the obelisk erected in Port-Vendres (Pyrenees Orientales), France, produced on the initiative of the Count of Mailly in honour of Louis XVI, the king deposed and guillotined by the revolutionaries. While this monument still stands, it has been greatly de-characterised. As such, this clock, whose mechanism is skilfully hidden, allows us to ascertain what the building looked like in the past, albeit with a few adaptations made to reflect its reception in Portugal, such as the metal globe that crowns the marble obelisk and indicates the time bearing a map of mainland Portugal. It also incorporates inscriptions in Portuguese with excerpts from a canto of Luís de Camões’s Lusiads and a letter from Sá de Miranda to King João III.

These characteristics give the piece a strong symbolic and political value, as the texts printed on it denote a glorification of royal power, in a kind of reaction to the French Revolution and as a sign of the Portuguese monarch's support for his French counterpart. In this sense, it may have been a gift to King João VI to mark his taking over the regency of the kingdom in 1792. It later passed into the possession of Carlota Joaquina, who kept it in her estate, Quinta do Ramalhão in Sintra, where it was inventoried in 1829.

The clock is now being restored and will be part of the exhibition circuit at the National Palace of Queluz in the future.

Memories of a princess who liked to paint

This Palace was also one of the favourite places of Princess Maria Francisca Benedita, younger sister of Queen Maria I, who lived here between 1746 and 1829. In addition to her philanthropic role, for which she became well known, the princess cultivated a taste for painting. She may even have received lessons from the painter Domingos Sequeira, though little evidence remains of this interest today.

The recent acquisition for the National Palace of Queluz of a painting of the Virgin Mary signed by Princess Maria Francisca Benedita is therefore of great importance, as it is a good example of the type of works she produced: small format paintings with figures of saints or scenes of a religious nature, intended for private devotion, to be placed in a bedroom or oratory.

Moreover, this picture, which was probably painted before the Royal Family left for Brazil (1807) and is the only one known to have been done in oil on copper, made it possible to attribute an anonymous work from the original Queluz collection to the princess, given its shared characteristics. It is a painting of St Joseph with the Child, which belonged to the oratory in King João VI's quarters in the palace.

Over the years, Parques de Sintra has developed a consistent policy of acquisitions for the palaces under its management, an investment that has already exceeded one million euros. Pieces acquired include a panoramic view of Quinta de Queluz from the late 17th and early 18th centuries (National Palace of Queluz), a gilded silver salver dating from 1548 and from the collection of King Ferdinand II (National Palace of Sintra), a bedstead with silver decorative elements from the second half of the 17th century (National Palace of Sintra), and a marble relief depicting the Virgin and Child by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Gregorio di Lorenzo (Palace of Monserrate). From the collection of Sir Francis Cook, former owner of Monserrate, this last piece was classified as a ‘National Treasure’ in 2021.