Thread by @invitinghistory

One June 19th, 1787, Sophie Hélène Béatrice, the fourth child born to Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, died at just under one year old. Her loss is reflected in this portrait by Vigee-Lebrun, which includes an empty cradle where Sophie would have been painted.

Marie Antoinette wrote to her sister in law Elisabeth, asking her to visit the Trianon after her daughter's death, "... we are mourning the death of my poor little angel. Farewell dear heart, you know how much I love you and I need your whole heart to comfort mine."

Elisabeth wrote to her friend, "I have been to [Trianon] the last few days with [the queen] and there was no attention she did not show me. ... what we did most was to weep over the death of my poor little niece."

Again writing to Bombelles, Elisabeth wrote how she hoped that Sophie would pray well for her (intercession) and "If you only knew how pretty she was when she died! It’s incredible. The day before, she was white and the color of pink, not thin; finally charming."

And no, none of the lovely detailed pastel or sketch drawings said to be young Sophie are actually Sophie. More information on these depictions here: invitinghistory.com/2021/07/the-mi…

The only absolutely-positively-confirmed depiction of Sophie we have is this crop from an image depicting the royal family:

There is also this allegorical portrait attributed to Gautier-Dagoty, and the assumption is that the blurry profile on the left is perhaps meant to be Sophie. But Dagoty died in 1786 before Sophie's death and the artist & subject of the painting is unconfirmed.

The autopsy of young Sophie concluded that she had died from a bacterial infection, possibly but not necessarily related to tuberculosis." She had a simple funeral.

On June 15th of 1787, Louis XVI had written in his notes, 'My youngest daughter's illness prevents me from hunting." On the 19th, he wrote, "Death of my youngest daughter at 3 o'clock. Walk in Saint-Cyr."

Related note: Fersen mythologers who pounce on Louis XVI writing 'Birth of the duc of Normandie, same as that of my son' as evidence Louis Charles wasn't his still pretend that Sophie must have also been Fersen's, even though Louis XVI wrote repeatedly of her, "MY daughter."