FABRE, François-Xavier
(b. 1766, Montpellier, d. 1837, Montpellier)

Portrait of the Countess d'Albany

1793
Oil on canvas, 93 x 73 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

This is the companion piece to the portrait of Vittorio Alfieri, perhaps painted at a later date, but also has a sonnet composed by the poet on its reverse side.

Louise of Stolberg, Countess d'Albany (1752-1824), was a prominent figure in late eighteenth-century Florence, not only and not so much because of her well-known relationship with Vittorio Alfieri, but above all because of the fervent intellectual activity she sustained in her salon, which was frequented by numerous French artists whose cultural tendencies led to the decisive introduction into Florence of neoclassical ideas.