Maria Theresa of Austria ruled the Habsburg Empire for forty years, until her death in 1780. Her vast realm included Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands, and Parma. Through the strategic marriages of her ten surviving children—she gave birth to sixteen in total—she secured her family’s influence across the royal houses of Europe.

Among her children were Queen Marie Antoinette of France, Holy Roman Emperors Joseph II and Leopold II, and Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily.

This painting is inspired by a childhood portrait of Maria Theresa by the German artist Anton Rafael Mengs, depicting her at the age of three with a caged African Grey parrot. In this reimagining, the parrot is set free, and Maria Theresa becomes the bird herself. The background is drawn from the wall murals in her private rooms at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna.