Marie Antoinette was a tragic figure in the final chapter of the French monarchy. Married at 14 to the Dauphin, later Louis XVI, she endured seven years of indifference before finally earning his affection and producing their first child—a daughter. Despite the uncertain beginning to their marriage, the couple grew close and remained devoted, even in the face of her widely speculated affairs.

During her reign, Marie Antoinette became the target of relentless public criticism—what might now be recognised as the 18th-century equivalent of social media trolling. Though she appears to have been a gentle and private individual who longed for simplicity, she was blamed for everything from poor harvests to national economic collapse. She was falsely implicated in a jewel theft scandal and accused of spying for her native Austria.

Both she and Louis—an earnest man with a noted fascination for locks—were executed during the French Revolution in 1793.

In this painting, Marie Antoinette is represented by a ring-necked parrot. Today, thousands of these birds live in Paris, descendants of escapees originally destined for a zoo. The distinctive ring around the parrot’s neck also alludes to the queen’s fate. The sofa and wallpaper are drawn from her bedroom at Versailles – a palace which must have felt like a human ant farm to a queen who dreamed of the quiet, pastoral life she created at the Petit Trianon.