Georg David Matthieu (1737-1778)

Portrait of Luise, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1756-1808), small bust length, wearing a light blue dress with lace chemise and bonnet set with precious stones, earrings - a fragment

Details

Georg David Matthieu (1737-1778)
Portrait of Luise, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1756-1808), small bust length, wearing a light blue dress with lace chemise and bonnet set with precious stones, earrings - a fragment
with the inventory numbers 978 (in blue), 4780K (in blue) and 978 on the backing of the frame
oil on canvas, oval, unstretched
27.9 x 22 cm
and Portrait of the same sitter, half length, attributed to Friedrich Erhard Wagener (1759-1813), with the crowned inventory number 596 on a label on the backing of the frame and with the inventory numbers 4795 (in blue) and 962 (in red) on the backing of the frame (2)

Exhibited

Schwerin, 1954, n0238, the sitter incorrectly identified as Luise Friederike, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (the first).

Lot Essay

A double portrait of the sitter and her husband by Matthieu, signed and dated 1778, is in the Staatliches Museum, Schwerin (E. Steinmann & H. Witte, Georg David Matthieu - Ein deutscher Maler des Rokoko (1737-1778), 1911, p.49, n049, plate XXIV). For information on Matthieu, see the following lot.

The sitter, daughter of Johann August, Prince of Sachsen-Gotha-Roda (1704-1767) (see for his portrait lot 1) and Luise, Princess Reuz zu Schleiz, married Friedrich Franz I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1756-1837) (see for his portrait lot 28), who was to become Grand Duke in 1815, on 6 June 1775.

See colour illustration

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