Early Victorian Elsa

It's been a little over a year since my last Disney girl, but finally, here's a new entry in my long-running Historically Accurate Disney Heroine series!  Meet Queen Elsa from FROZEN.

The original study for this painting is here. Like Hans, I depicted her in late 1830s clothes: I modeled a lot of her style on Maria II of Portugal, one of the cooler queen regnants of the 19th century. (I debated using Victoria, but I nixed that for being too obvious.)  Basically, I chose the late 1830s for the setting since the women's styles in the movie were solidly 1840s to early 1850s in their silhouette, but Hans's hair and costumes floated somewhere Napoleonic and early Victorian, and the young princesses wore Empire style children's frocks. (Also, concept art of the Arendelle royal family place the girls' childhood in the 1810s-1820s, so an 1838 date seemed reasonable.)

This wedding dress and this painting of Clara Novello also inspired the gown design.