VIENNA, AUSTRIA.- The Belvedere presents Enlightened Bourgeois - Portraits from Gainsborough to Waldm黮ler 1750 –1840, on view through February 18, 2007. In the course of the eighteenth century the art of portraiture throughout Europe underwent a remarkable transformation. As the age of Feudalism gave way to Enlightenment the old impersonal precepts of portraiture were replaced by demands for a more individual representation of the sitter.

The exhibition shows this artistic development in the imperial city of Vienna, with works by Messerschmidt, Friedrich Heinrich F黦er, Johann Baptist Lampi, Ferdinand Georg Waldm黮ler and Friedrich von Amerling.

These are put into context with examples from other capitals such as Berlin and Madrid (Francisco de Goya). French portraiture is represented by Jacques Louis David, Elisabeth Vig閑-Le Brun, Fran鏾is G閞ard and Houdon; the art in Great Britain by Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Lawrence and David Wilkie.