Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, aka "an Austrian dignitary"

Always nice to find the sitter of a portrait. Usually this is quite hard or next to impossible, but sometimes everything you need is handed to you on a platter.

At New Orleans Auction Galleries, Lot 611, they sell an 18th century Austrian School portrait of a dignitary, estimated at $1,000 to $1,500. The sitter clearly has the Order of the Golden Fleece (and some other impressive orders), which means that he is a very high ranking dignitary, perhaps one of the Habsburg ruling dynasty. Looking at some images of potential candidates, the striking face of the portrait is easily recognisable in the other portraits of Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, who then became confusingly Franz I of Austria.This also means that the painting is probably early 19th century instead of 18th century, but that's not really important.

Obviously, the painting for sale is far inferior to e.g. the portrait by Friedrich von Amerling, but then the price reflects this as well. As art, it isn't worth more than the estimate, but historically, if you are into such things, having an original quiite large portrait of the very last Holy Roman Emperor should surely be worth more than $1,000? And perhaps, because they didn't know the identity in New Orleans, you can get it even cheaper...