Portrait of King Fernando II
Author: Francisco José de Resende
Origin: Porto, Portugal
Dating: 1859
Material: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions (cm): 56,5 x 71
Inv. no.: MNSR219 / PD1344dep
Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha is depicted wearing a dark blue coat with a gold-trimmed collar and, on his left side, a sash of various colours with commendations.
Ferdinand was born in Vienna, in 1816, into a Saxon-Austro-Hungarian family, as the firstborn of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. During his childhood, he grew up in several properties belonging to his family in present-day Slovakia and at the Austrian and German Courts. He received an excellent education, revealing from an early age his refined artistic talent. In 1836, he married Queen Maria II and became King Consort of Portugal. He was the Queen’s second husband. According to Portuguese law, as the husband of the reigning queen, Fernando only received the title of king after the birth of the first heir – the future King Pedro V.
His political activity was not very remarkable, limited to being an advisor to his wife and later to his children.
Upon the death of Queen Maria II in 1853, he assumed the regency of the kingdom, but quickly handed over power to his son, Pedro V.
Throughout his life, he dedicated himself to the Arts, being an artist himself (singer, painter, draftsman and engraver). He proved to be a great defender of Portuguese heritage, ensuring the conservation of Portuguese monuments. In 1836, he was elected president of the Academia Real das Ciências (Royal Academy of Sciences) and, in 1841, of the Conservatório Real (Royal Conservatory). He promoted cultural and financial projects in the Batalha Monastery, the Mafra Convent, the Convent of Christ in Tomar, the Jerónimos Monastery, in the Cathedral of Lisboa and in the Belém Tower. He was also interested in Portuguese artistic heritage, buying and collecting countless works of art, which are still preserved in museums and national palaces.
In 1861, he returned to power during a brief regency, following the death of the young monarch Pedro V. In 1862, he was suggested for the throne of Greece – a proposal he declined – and, in 1868, for the throne of Spain, after the revolution that overthrew Queen Isabella II, but he also rejected it.
In 1869, he married for a second time, morganatically, with Elise Hensler – an opera singer and single mother, to whom he would leave the Pena Palace as inheritance.
Shortly before his death, Fernando began to suffer from a painful illness to which he did not resist. He died in Lisboa, in 1885, and is buried next to Queen Maria II in the Royal Pantheon of the Bragança – the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora.
