AFTER JOSEF KARL STIELER (GERMAN, 1781-1858)

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF ERNST ADOLF TITGEMEYER

Details

AFTER JOSEF KARL STIELER (GERMAN, 1781-1858)
Princess Alexandra of Bavaria (1826-1875), in white off-the-shoulders dress, her brown hair dressed in ringlets and decorated with ivy
enamel on copper
oval, 3 in. (78 mm.) high, gilt-metal frame with stamped foliate surround

Provenance

Alfred von Strasser-Sánczi Collection, Vienna, in 1905, 1906 and 1931.
Dr Dietisheim, Ascona.

Exhibited

Troppau (Silesia), Kaiser Franz Josef-Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Ausstellung von Miniaturen, 1905, no. 99.
Berlin, Salons Friedmann & Weber, Miniaturen-Ausstellung, 1906, no. 830 (as Alexandra, Empress of Russia, lent by Alfred von Strasser-Sánczi, Vienna).
Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, Das gemalte Kleinporträt, 1931, no. 276 (as Empress Alexandra of Russia, lent by Alfred von Strasser-Sánczi, Vienna).

Brought to you by

Matilda Burn

mburns@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3026

Lot Essay

Princess Alexandra of Bavaria, the eighth child and fifth daughter of King Ludwig I of Bavaria (see lot 235), never married, and was appointed abbess of the Royal Chapter for Ladies of Saint Anne in Munich and Würzburg, a religious community specifically for noble ladies. Notwithstanding certain literary accomplishments, Alexandra suffered from several psychological eccentricities, including a fixation with cleanliness. She only used to wear white clothes, as in the present portrait which is a copy after Josef Karl Stieler's oil painting of 1845 now at Nymphenburg Castle, Munich, part of King Ludwig's Gallery of Beauties.

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