Empress choking in corset

In this painting is a graceful-looking woman in a beautiful white dress looking over her shoulder. Her long hair is tied up, and her satin dress are studded with silver stars. “The Empress Elisabeth of Austria,” painted by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873), portrays one of the most beautiful empresses in the history of European royal families – widely known by her nickname “Sisi.”

Born to a German farmer, Winterhalter was so talented that he could earn a scholarship to attend the Academy of Arts in Munich. Working as a court painter in France, the artist was commissioned by many European royal members and nobles to paint their portraits, bringing him international fame. This painting was produced at the peak of his career when he was 60 years old at the request of the Emperor of Austria, Franz Joseph I. Here stands a 28-year-old empress dazzling the artist with her glamorous dress, which is representative of the fashion trends of her time. The silver star decorations dotted on her hair and dress symbolize the edelweiss, or the Austrian national flower.

It was only at the age of 16 when this bubbly and naïve girl brought up in Germany left home and married the Austrian emperor. When she accompanied one of her sisters, who took a trip hoping she could become the emperor's bride, the emperor decided that he preferred her younger sister Sisi instead. Her married years did not make her happy because she struggled with strict rules in court and suffered multiple childbirths, the death of her firstborn, and conflict with her mother-in-law. It was her looks that enabled her to be chosen as the empress but caused her to be obsessed with her appearance throughout her life. One of the biggest parts of her daily routine was to do her hair and fit in her corset.

Indeed, the empress put her body into a chokingly tight corset every morning to have a 19-20 inch waist. After her son committed suicide, she always chose to wear a black dress until she was assassinated in Switzerland at the age of 60. Squeezed in her corset, she might have not felt any sharp pain from the shade of the assassin. This beautiful but misfortunate lady could be recorded in history as one of the most graceful empresses in the world, thanks to the painter's strokes. At the same time, she is permanently left on the artist's canvas as a woman in a tight-fitting corset.