L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e ~ D o s t o ï e v s k i

L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e  ~  D o s t o ï e v s k i



Sunday, June 7, 2015

Two sisters of Adolf Friedrich von Olthof, by Georg David Matthieu, circa 1760s


"Porträt der Magdalene Charlotte von Olthoff im weißen Kleid als Opferpriesterin" - as a priestess in a white gown making an offering.
Magdalene Charlotte (circa 1732 - circa 1805) was married to the pastor Johann Christian Stegemann.
The subject's daughter Anna Magdalene, called Eleonore (circa 1752 - sometime after 1806), who would have been around the age of twelve.

Adolf Friedrich von Olthof (7 September 1718, Strelitz - 30 June 1793, Stralsund), Swedish-Pomeranian political councillor, businessman, and patron of the arts; the painter Matthieu was one of his protégés, as was Jacob Philipp Hackert. At one point Governor of Stralsund, then under Swedish control, Olthof's income was not commensurate with his lavish lifestyle, and his career successes were overshadowed and finally overwhelmed by his financial embarrassments. He never married but appears to have been very close to his family.
 
"Porträt der Anna Regina von Olthoff als Bacchantin"- the subject as a Bacchante.

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Georg David Matthieu (20 November 1737, Berlin - 3 November 1778, Ludwigslust), German engraver and portrait painter. He was born into a family of painters; his father was a court painter in Prussia. As a protégé of von Olthof, he produced numerous portraits of the latter's family and other Swedish nobility. His portrait of Queen Sophie Charlotte, the new wife of Britain's George III, led to his appointment as court painter to the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Given an apartment in Ludwigslust Palace, he spent the remainder of his brief life painting portraits of members of the Grand Ducal family and their relatives. He died a few weeks shy of his forty-first birthday.



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