Madame Elisabeth de France (1764-1794), youngest sister of the Kings Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X, shared the emprisonment of the Royal family in the Temple and was guillotined after her brother and her sister-in-law Marie-Antoinette, only a short time before the fall of Robespierre.
The present miniature was very probably painted during the emigration of the Marquise de Raigecourt, memorising the sufferings of her deceased friend. For an ad-vivum likeness of the sitter, see lot 108.