Carl von BLAAS (1815-1894). Portrait of Alexander Freherr v. Hübner, 1878. Oil on canvas signed and dated 1878 lower left and titled upper left (scratches, accidents and missing parts). Height 101 cm - Width 75 cm Note: Carl von Blaas, an Austrian genre and history painter, became professor of history painting at the Vienna Academy in 1851, then at the Venice Academy in 1855. The same year, he made a name for himself at the Exposition Universelle in Paris with his painting "Charlemagne visiteant une école d'enfants" ("Charlemagne visiting a children's school"). Joseph Alexander von Hübner (1811-1892), whose real name was Josef Hafenbredl, also known as Count de Hübner, Baron de Hübner or Alexandre de Hübner, was an Austrian diplomat born in Vienna. Attaché, then embassy secretary and finally consul, he trained in several European embassies before being appointed Austrian ambassador to Paris, then to the Holy See. He is the author of several works on his missions and travels, providing invaluable insights into diplomatic life, as well as into countries that were not very open at the time, which he visited with insatiable curiosity, as much at ease with Chinese peasants as in the highest aristocratic circles. Raised to the title of Count in 1888, he was one of the most prominent political figures in the Austrian monarchy.