Masterfully portrait of Baroness Amalie von Krüdener ( in Russian sources Amalia Maximilianovna Krüdener), born Countess Lerchenfeld, in the 2nd marriage Countess Adlerberg (1808–1888), the famous beauty of the highest society of the 19th century, in whom the Russian poet Tjuttscheff fell in love and dedicated few his poetry. On the back of original canvas is antique inscription: J.Stieler and dating 1828. Due to the quality of the work, the time of creation (early 19th century) we attributed this work to the hand of prominent Munich portrait painter Joseph Karl Stieler (1781 Mainz - 1858 Munich). It's know two versions by Stieler of this portrait: more famous portrait of Amalie is in the Beauty Gallery in Nymphenburg/Munich and other one - in a Italian collection. We believe that our painting is the third newly found author's version.

Amalie Adlerberg (Russian: " Amalie Stargard"; 1808) in Regensburg; 1] - 21 June 1888 in Tegernsee) was born as an illegitimate child of Count Maximilian-Emanuel Lerchenfeld (1772-1809) and Duchess Therese of Mecklenburg (1773-1839), Princess of Thurn and Taxis. Therese had an affair with this Bavarian diplomat, while her husband Karl Alexander was in Paris for several years at Napoleon Bonaparte's invitation.

After her father's death on 19 October 1809, Amalie joined the Darmstadt family of Sternfeld, who were related to Therese. Later she was taken to Regensburg near her mother. Eventually she was raised by her stepmother von Lerchenfeld with her half-siblings and lived in her Munich palace or in the family castle in Köfering. On 1 August 1823, Louis I of Hesse-Darmstadt granted her permission to bear the name Amalie von Lerchenfeld. However, she was not allowed to carry the family coat of arms, nor to appear in the family tree. In 1822, Amalie met the young Fyodor Tyuttsev, who had moved from St. Petersburg to Munich in the same year to work in the Russian diplomatic mission. The love affair they began with each other is evidenced by Tzuttshev's poems like tears (Russian) that arose on the day of an appointment between the two and is most likely dedicated to Amalie. Other of his works, for which he was inspired by Amalie, are An N. (Russian) and I commemorate the golden age... (Russia).

In addition to Tyuttshev, another diplomat began to take an interest in Amalie: Baron Paul Alexander von Krüdener, the Russian embassy attaché in Munich. Amalie preferred the title of nobility and the German-Baltic ancestry of the older count to the younger Tjuttshev without title. The letters and diaries of Maximilian Joseph von Lerchenfeld shed light on the first years of Tjuttschew's diplomatic activity in Munich (1822–26) and give a picture of his unsuccessful love affair with Amalie, which on January 19, 1825 almost led to a duel with von Krüdener. would have led. On 31 August 1825, 17-year-old Amalie von Krüdener married in Köfering. She gave birth to her first child Nikolai-Arthur on 20 June / 2 July 1826.

Two years later, the young beauty was painted in 1828 by Joseph Karl Stieler, the portraitist of the Nymphenburg Beauty Gallery of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Baron von Krüdener died in Stockholm in 1852.

At the age of 40, she gave birth to an illegitimate child on March 17, 1848. His father was 29-year-old Count Nikolaus von Adlerberg. During the Crimean War, Count von Adlerberg was Governor-General of Taurien. Many children lost their parents as a result of the war. The orphans were taken to Simferopol along with wounded soldiers. After the foundation of an orphanage by the city council failed, Amalie created a transitional solution for 14 orphans on 31 December 1854 at his own expense. In 1857, the orphanage was officially established and given the name of Amalie Adlerberg, who had married the count in 1855. Unlike all other orphanages in Russia, which bore the name of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, the Amalie Adlerberg orphanage retained its original name in the future.

Literature: Artist dictionaries by Thieme / Becker ( German), Benezit (in French).

Inscription: inscribed and dated 1828 on the back of original canvas.

Technique: oil on canvas, original period gilt frame.

Measurements: unframed w 22 7/8" x h 28 1/3" (58 x 72 cm), framed w 29 1/8" x h 34 2/3" (74 x 88 cm).

Condition: in very good condition.