Gallery of Beauties
The Gallery of Beauties (German: Schönheitengalerie) is a collection of 36 portraits of the most beautiful women from the nobility and middle classes of Munich, Germany, painted between 1827 and 1850 (mostly by Joseph Karl Stieler, appointed court painter in 1820) and gathered by Ludwig I of Bavaria in the south pavilion of his Nymphenburg Palace in Munich.[1] Two additional ones were created by Friedrich Dürck. Its best-known works are the portraits of the shoemaker's daughter Helene Sedlmayr, the actress Charlotte von Hagn (revered by audiences in Munich, Berlin and Saint Petersburg) and the king's Irish mistresses Eliza Gilbert (Lola Montez) and Marianna Marquesa Florenzi. They include a Briton, a Greek, a Scot and an Israelite, along with relations of Ludwig's - the wife and daughter of Ludwig of Oettingen-Wallerstein were both painted, as was Ludwig I's daughter Princess Alexandra of Bavaria.
The collection was a late example of a fashion for such series, which includes an earlier one in Munich of beauties of the French court brought back from Versailles by Maximilian II. Emanuel who had spent a period there. In England there are the Windsor Beauties, eleven of the King's mistresses painted by Sir Peter Lely in the 1660s, and the Hampton Court Beauties, a later set by Sir Godfrey Kneller.
List
A list of the portraits follows:
Name | Life | Husband(s) | Dimensions | Year | Image |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Auguste Strobl | (1807–1871) | Anton Hilber, forester (∞ 1831) | 72,5 x 59,2 cm | 1827 | |
Maximiliane Borzaga | (1806–1837) | Joseph Krämer, doctor in Kreuth (∞ 1830) | 72 x 58 cm | 1827 | |
Isabella von Trauffkirchen-Engelberg | (1808–1855) | Count Hektor von Kwilecky auf Kwilcz (∞ 1830) | 72 x 59,8 cm | 1828 | |
Amalie von Lerchenfeld | (1808–1888) | Freiherr Alexander von Krüdener (∞ 1836-1852) Count Nikolai Wladimirowitsch Adlerberg (∞ 1855) |
72,2 x 59 cm | 1828 | |
Antonietta Cornelia Vetterlein [2] | (1811–1862) | Reichsfreiherr Franz Ludwig Friedrich von Künsberg auf Hain-Schmeilsdorf (∞ 1843) | 72,5 x 59,2 cm | 1828 | |
Charlotte von Hagn | (1809–1891) | Alexander von Oven, Gutsbesitzer (∞ 1848) | 73,2 x 59,5 cm | 1828 | |
Nanette Kaulla | (1812–1876) | Salomon Heine, banker (∞ 1834) | 72,2 x 59 cm | 1829 | |
Anna Hillmayer | (1812–1847) | 71,7 x 58,4 cm | 1829 | ||
Regina Daxenberger | (1811–1872) | Heinrich Fahrenbacher (∞ 1832) | 70 x 58,9 cm | 1829 | |
Jane Elizabeth Digby | (1807–1881) | Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough (∞ 1824-1830) Freiherr Karl von Veningen-Ulner (∞ 1834) |
72 x 58 cm | 1831 | |
Marianna Marquesa Florenzi | (1802–1870) | Ettore Marchese Florenzi Charles Waddington |
71,6 x 58,4 cm | 1831 | |
Amalie von Schintling | (1812–1831) | Fritz von Schintling (betrothed, died before the wedding) | 72 x 58,5 cm | 1831 | |
Helene Sedlmayr | (1813–1898) | Kammerlakei Miller (from 1832) | 71,4 x 58,2 cm | 1831 | |
Irene von Pallavicini | (1811–1877) | Count Alois Nikolaus von Arco auf Steppberg (son of Maria Leopoldine von Österreich-Este), later divorced | 72 x 58,2 cm | 1834 | |
Caroline von Holnstein | (1815–1859) | Count Theodor von Holnstein aus Bayern (∞ 1831) Freiherr Wilhelm von Künsberg von Fronberg (∞ 1857) |
71,5 x 58 cm | 1834 | |
Jane Erskine | (1818–1846) | James Henry Callander, Esquire of Craigforth (∞ 1837) | 72 x 57,9 cm | 1837 | |
Theresa Spence | (1815–?) | 72 x 57,8 cm | 1837 | ||
Mathilde von Jordan | (1817–1856) | Freiherr Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust (∞ 1843) | 72 x 59 cm | 1837 | |
Wilhelmine Sulzer | (1819–?) | Karl Schneider, registrar (∞ 1838) | 72 x 59 cm | 1838 | |
Luise von Neubeck | (1816–1872) | Abbess of the Heilig-Geist-Spitals (1870–1872) | * Missing since 1936 | 1839 | |
Antonie Wallinger | (1823–1893) | Friedrich von Ott (∞ 1860), regierungsrat | 72,3 x 58,8 cm | 1840 | |
Rosalie Julie von Bonar | (1814–?) | Freiherr Ernst von Bonar etc. | 72 x 58,2 cm | 1840 | |
Sophie Friederike von Bayern | (1805–1872) | Archduke Franz Karl of Austria (∞ 1824) | 72 x 59 cm | 1841 | |
Katharina Botsaris | (1820–1872) | Prince Georg Karadja (∞ 1845) | 72,4 x 59 cm | 1841 | |
Caroline Lizius | (1825–1908) | 71 x 59,4 cm | 1842 | ||
Elise List | (1822–1893) | Gustav Pacher, from Vienna (∞ 1845) | 70,3 x 59,2 cm | 1842 | |
Marie Friederike of Prussia | (1825–1889) | Crown Prince Maximilian II of Bavaria (∞ 1842) | 71,7 x 58 cm | 1843 | |
Friederike von Gumppenberg | (1823–1916) | Ludwig Freiherr von Gumppenberg, her cousin (∞ 1857) | 70 x 59,4 cm | 1843 | |
Caroline von Oettingen-Wallerstein | (1824–1889) | Count Hugo Philipp von Waldbott-Bassenheim (∞ 1843) | 71 x 59,5 cm | 1843 | |
Emily Milbanke[3] | (1822–1910) | Sir John Milbanke, British envoy in Munich (∞ 1843)[4] | 71 x 59 cm | 1844 | |
Josepha Conti | (1823–1881) | Anton Conti (∞ 1840, soon abandoned her) | 71,5 x 58,5 cm | 1844 | |
Alexandra Amalie of Bavaria | (1826–1875) | 70,5 x 59,2 cm | 1845 | ||
Auguste Ferdinande von Österreich | (1825–1864) | Prince Luitpold von Bayern (∞ 1844) | 70,2 x 59 cm | 1845 | |
Lola Montez | (1821–1861) | Thomas James, army officer 3 others |
72 x 58,6 cm | 1847 | |
Maria Dietsch | (1835–1869) | Georg Sprecher, Chefredakteur der Augsburger Abendzeitung (∞ 1865) | 73 x 59 cm | 1850 | |
Anna von Greiner | (1836–?) | Emil von Greiner (von 1861-1865) | 1861 | ||
Carlotta von Breidbach-Bürresheim | (1838–1920) | Count Philipp Boos zu Waldeck (∞ 1863) | vor 1863 | ||
References
- S. K. Ludovic, "A King's Gallery of Beauty" Strand Magazine (January 1902): 16-23.
- Born 1811 in Münchberg
- Third daughter of the Earl of Mansfield.
- Their son John was also an envoy .
External links
Media related to Schönheitengalerie at Wikimedia Commons