Portrait of Queen Elizabeth

The beautiful and tragic Elizabeth von Wittelsbach, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, was seen as a model of virtue. She had been educated in a more liberal spirit than was prevalent at the rigorous Burg in Vienna, and, in an effort to neutralize the influence of an intransigent court, she learned to speak Hungarian. She did much to speed the Compromise of 1867 which gave some autonomy to Hungary, and her efforts to this end won her the epithet of “The Good Hungarian Queen”. The mysterious suicide of her son, Rudolf, the heir apparent, and her own assasination by an Italian anarchist in 1898, further enhanced her legendary status. She was invariably portrayed in the Academic style, like in this painting.