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# The marriage of Maria Josephine of Savoy to the Count of Provence, the future Louis XVIII
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/vo-pervykh-eto-ne-samyi-populiarnyi-portret-marii-zhozefiny-savoiskoi-i-v-printsipe-izobrazhennaia-na-nem-zhenshchina-tiazhelo-ugadyvaetsia-v-drugikh-svoikh-zhe-portretakh-gde-ona-pokaz/
- Published: 2019-10-04T10:17:39.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:51:59.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Art, Monarchies, Mores, People

Firstly, this is not the most popular portrait of Marie-Joséphine of Savoy, and the woman depicted in it is scarcely recognisable in her other portraits, where she appears as a pomaded slip of a thing in wigs and jewels. Secondly, what do we actually know of this Queen of France? Perhaps one of the least celebrated of French queens, the second daughter of the King of Sardinia, who once had the good fortune to marry the Count of Provence of the House of Bourbon. Who could have supposed in 1771 that this man, of no consequence at court, would twenty years later become regent, and a little after that King Louis XVIII, while his wife, despised by all, quarrelsome and good for nothing, would become queen? The absurdity and improbability of the tale is compounded by the fact that the marriage was practically a fiction: childless, crowned, alas, only by two miscarriages, conducted at a distance and in estrangement. What is more, Marie-Joséphine lived almost openly with her favourite, and the entreaties of her so-called husband could do nothing to hinder their stormy romance.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_1880@04-10-2019_13-17-39.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_1881@04-10-2019_13-17-39.jpg)