Attributed to Joseph Karl Stieler (German, 1781-1858), "Georg Karl Friedrich, Prince of Saxe-Altenburg (1796-1858)", and his wife "Marie Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Princess of Saxe-Altenburg (1803-1862)", c. 1835, each oil on canvas, unsigned, accompanied by contemporaneous card with period inscription of identification and titles, 14 in. x 11 3/8 in, and 14 1/4 x 11 1/2 in. respectively, ebonized frames.
Provenance: Private collection, Berlin, until 1949; to collection of Bridgette Kirkham, Berlin and Seattle, 1950-c. 1975, to present owner
Note: Prince Georg Karl was a member of the royal house of Wettin, and was born as a prince of the Thuringian state of Saxe-Hildburghausen, just to the west of the kingdom of Saxony. In 1826 his parents, Friedrich (1763-1834) and Charlotte Georgine (1769-1818, married 1785) became Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Altenburg, from which title their successor, Georg's elder brother Joseph, abdicated in the revolutions of 1848. The present sitter Georg thus succeeded as Duke of Saxe-Altenburg in that year, but died ten days after his 57th birthday in 1853. He had married in 1825 Maria Louise, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1803-1862), and they had three children in quick succession between 1826 and 1829, the eldest of whom succeeded his father. Prince Georg's elder sister Therese Charlotte Louise Frederica Amalie (1792-1854) had become Queen of Bavaria upon her marriage in 1810 to King Ludwig I (1786-1868), and were the grandparents of the notorious 'Mad King Ludwig' (1845-1886).
King Ludwig I of Bavaria had appointed Joseph Karl Stieler as court painter at Munich in 1820, and it seems very probable that Queen Therese may have recommended her court painter to her younger brother and his wife. Stieler had studied in Würtzburg, Vienna, and Paris (under François Gerard), and visited Italy in 1809, 1810, and 1812; his celebrated portrait style is a fusion of Neo-Classicism with the even more fashionable Biedermeier manner.
Although the two splendid pictures offered here appear slightly smaller than was usual for the Munich court painter J. K. Stieler, their unquestioned adherence to his general style, and above all the fact that his appointment at Munich came (in 1820) from Prince Georg's sister and brother-in-law, the King and Queen of Bavaria (Ludwig I, 1786-1868, and Therese Charlotte Louise Frederica Amalie, 1792-1854), combine with his well-documented work for this specific court of Saxe-Altenburg, to make it quite clear that he must have been the artist whom Queen Therese recommended to her younger brother, Prince Georg. These two extraordinary images-especially that of Princess Marie Louise-in fact represent exalted moments of very high fashion.
Reference: U. von Hase-Schmundt, "Stieler," in Grove Dictionary of Art, Jane Turner, ed., 34 vols., London, 1996, vol. 29, p. 658.