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In intimate small formats, Elizabeth Peyton portrays pop icons and historical figures in whom she takes a personal interest. She mainly used photographs as models. With her unique visual language, Peyton brought a breath of fresh air to traditional portrait painting in the early 1990s. What her portrayals of different characters all have in common is a sensitive, airy style of painting that creates a melancholy aura. After intensively studying the person and their history, the painter reveals to us their vulnerable side, as so evident in the portrait of Marie Antoinette. The glaze-like pink tones applied with delicate brushstrokes and the contours of varying thickness make the subject appear fragile, sensitive and alive. Marie Antoinette’s marionette-like figure reflects her tragic history, from her politically motivated, arranged marriage to her death on the guillotine. Peyton possibly drew inspiration from Stefan Zweig’s biography “Marie Antoinette: Bildnis eines mittleren Charakters” (“Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman”), which she read “one dreary summer after university.” (https://www.derstandard.de/story/ 2000084640699/elizabeth-peytonnein-says-his-name-not, 10/12/2023) In 1993, Peyton’s portrait of Marie Antoinette was featured in her major exhibition in Room 828 of the legendary Chelsea Hotel in New York. Visitors had to request the room key at the hotel reception.

(Isabell Kneidinger)