And then forty-nine years later - two portraits of Caroline Amalie, Queen of Denmark

Portrait by Louis Aumont (1805-1879), 1830.

Portrait by Hans Christian Jensen (1836-1903), 1879.

Caroline Amalie of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (28 June 1796, Copenhagen – 9 March 1881, Copenhagen), queen consort of Denmark from 1839 to 1848, as the second spouse of King Christian VIII. She was the daughter of Frederik Christian II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, and Princess Louise Auguste of Denmark, the only daughter of Christian VII and his British wife, Queen Caroline Matilde. She was given the conventional education of an upper class female of her time. Her woefully mismatched parents had a stormy marriage, but she was always close to her mother. And it was her mother who introduced her to the heir apparent to the Danish throne, her first cousin, the future Christian VIII, encouraging them to marry. (Though marriage between first cousins was far from rare at the time, they probably weren't fully that, as Caroline's mother's paternity was decidedly in doubt.)

Christian had divorced his first wife Charlotte Frederika of Mecklenburg-Schwerin - the mother of his heir, the future Frederik VII - in 1810 on grounds of adultery. Christian and Caroline Amalie were engaged in 1814, the wedding taking place the following year. After Christian served as Governor of Fionia in 1816 and 1817, the couple undertook numerous trips through Europe, visiting various resorts in an attempt to remedy their inability to conceive a child; in the end they would have no issue.

A bust of her husband, the future Christian VIII, the work of Bertel Thorvaldsen.

Their relationship was harmonious and seen as an image of the contemporary ideal of marriage. Her acceptance of his rampant infidelity - he produced at least ten illegitimate offspring, for whom he generously provided - was regarded as something appropriate and gracious, suitable within their milieu and for the times. Christian was devoted to the sciences, mineralogy and geology in particular. And Caroline Amalie was a composer, writing numerous pieces for piano. Her amiable personality made her well liked and respected within the royal family, and she is said to have been a good stepmother to her stepson Frederick.

In 1839, her husband ascended the throne and she became Queen Consort of Denmark. Caroline Amalie had always been active in philanthropic endeavors. Even before becoming Queen, she had established two poor houses under her patronage and, after, she sponsored a home for the sick and women in childbirth. Her charitable projects for poor orphans earned her the name "The Poor Children's Mother" and "The Royal Foster mother of the Little Ones". As Crown princess and later as Queen, she became a role model for the female members of the nobility and upper classes, setting an example for upper class women to be actively involved in society through philanthropy. Her introduction of a new and acceptable public and political role for women is considered to have had great impact on Danish society.

Caroline Amalie was a follower of the religious ideas of N. F. S. Grundtvig, whose movement she actively supported; in 1841, she founded an orphanage, Dronning Caroline Amalies Asylskole, whose school was inspired by the ideas of Grundtvig. She has not been described as an intellectual herself, however she regarded it as a duty to introduce the representatives of art and literature at court and act as their supporter. The growing unrest between Denmark and the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, with her brothers being in opposition to Christian VIII and Denmark, caused a difficult situation for the Queen, who was suspected of conspiring with her brothers against Danish interests. This made her unpopular and exposed her to some hostility during the last years of Christian's reign.

Caroline Amalie became a widow in 1848; she survived her spouse for more than thirty years. She took up residence at Sorgenfri Castle north of Copenhagen, but due to ill health she preferred to spend winters in southern Europe. She also outlived her stepson's reign by seventeen years, thereby living to see Christian IX become king, with her niece Louise of Hesse-Kassel as queen. As Queen Dowager, she regained the popularity that had waned in the years before her husband's death, and she continued with her charitable projects. She lived to the great age of eighty-four and was buried at Roskilde Cathedral next to Christian VIII.

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A photograph of the Queen Dowager wearing the same clothes as in Jensen's portrait.

The same toilette as in the Jensen portrait - with feathers added - was used for the portrait by sculptor Vilhelm Bissen (1836-1913), 1896.

Bissen's sculpture of the Queen stands in the gardens at Rosenborg Castle.
(And, here, suffers the indignity all outdoor sculptural portraits must endure: a bird on the head.)

Consecutive Danish kings - Christian VIII and Frederik VII, four portraits by Johan Vilhelm Gertner

King Christian VIII, 1845.

Christian VIII (18 September 1786, Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen – 20 January 1848, Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen), King of Denmark from 1839 to 1848 and, as Christian Frederik, King of Norway in 1814. He was given a thorough and wide-ranging education with exposure to the artists and scientists who were attached to the court of his father, the future Frederick VI. Talented, amiable, and handsome, he was very popular in Copenhagen. He first married his cousin Duchess Charlotte Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1806. Their first-born son was born and died the following year, but their second son would succeed his father as Frederik VII. The marriage was dissolved by divorce in 1810 after Charlotte Frederica was accused of adultery. He married his second wife, Princess Caroline Amalie of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, five years later. The couple was childless and lived in comparative retirement as leaders of the literary and scientific society of Copenhagen until Christian ascended the throne of Denmark. Christian also had ten extramarital children, for whom he carefully provided.

Denmark and Norway were a united kingdom for almost three hundred years, but in 1814, in the confusion and turmoil of the waning of Napoléon's domination of Europe, even though Christian's father, a great ally of Napoléon, now sat on the throne of Denmark, Cristian was elected King of Norway. Which he remained for not quite three months. (After his abdication and return to Denmark, Norway joined with Sweden in a joint kingdom which lasted until 1905, when Norway became independent - and elected a Danish prince as their new king.) On his ascension to the throne of Denmark twenty-five years later, the Liberal party had high hopes for the new régime. In the past, Christian had displayed clearly liberal sympathies, but now he changed direction and firmly resisted the demands of the advocates of a constitutional régime. He proved a hesitant ruler who did his best to ignore the political rumblings that would erupt all over Europe in the year of his death. Christian did have to act decisively to avert a succession crisis - his only legitimate son, the future Frederik VII, was married three times, had produced no legitimate issue, and was now unlikely to beget heirs - so, eventually, with the approval of Europe's Great Powers, in 1852 a niece of Christian's and her husband were chosen as the eventual successors to the Danish throne. But the King, himself, had died four years before of blood poisoning at the age of sixty-one.

1848.

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King Frederik VII, 1851.

Frederik VII (Frederik Carl Christian: 6 October 1808, Copenhagen – 15 November 1863, Glücksburg), King of Denmark from 1848 to 1863, he was the last Danish monarch of the older royal branch of the House of Oldenburg and also the last to rule as an absolute monarch. During his reign, he signed a constitution that established a Danish parliament and made the country a constitutional monarchy.

Only two years old when his parents divorced, he had a rather neglected childhood. He, himself, would be married three times. A few weeks after his twentieth birthday he married for the first time, to his second cousin Princess Vilhelmine Marie of Denmark. They separated in 1834 and divorced three years later. In 1841 he married for a second time, to Duchess Caroline Charlotte Mariane of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whom he divorced in 1846. There was no issue from either marriage. As Crown Prince, Frederik lived a quite publicly scandalous lifestyle and was known to be a heavy drinker. He was accused of much infidelity during his first two marriages, but he appears to have produced no illegitimate offspring, the assumed cause his infertility. Another rumor put forth is that he may have been bi-sexual and that he was in a long-term relationship with his great friend, publisher Carl Berling. Berling had had an illegitimate child with former ballet dancer Louise Christine Rasmussen in 1841 and Frederik was very attached to the child. After Frederik became king, Berling became a court chamberlain, and a year and a half after his accession, Frederik married Louise morganatically, creating her Countess Danner. Whatever the circumstances of their union, the marriage caused a great scandal and the Countess was shunned in royal and aristocratic circles. The couple were happy together though, and his wife appears to have been a stabilizing influence on her husband.

Soon after coming to the throne Frederik granted Denmark a constitution and from then on ruled as a constitutional monarch, though he continued to meddle in politics. The biggest, lingering concern of his reign was the Schleswig-Holstein Question, whether the duchies were part of the dominion of the Danish crown or should become independent entities within the German Confederation. (The question was only resolved in 1864, when Frederik's successor was forced to renounce his rights to the duchies in favor of Prussia and Austria; two years later, it all went to Prussia. Today, Northern Schleswig is a part of Denmark, while the remainder, as Schleswig-Holstein, is a state of Germany.)

As mentioned above, Frederik's father Christian VIII, fearing for the succession due to the childless state of his only son, had instigated proceedings to ensure it. Finding an eligible relative was an extremely complicated matter but, finally, two were found: Frederik's cousin Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel and her husband and second cousin, Prince Christian of Glücksburg, a member of a junior line of the Danish royal family. (They are the founders of the current Danish royal dynasty and through their descendants the ancestors of many of the royal and aristocratic families of Europe.) This was all finalized by the London Protocol of 1852, by which time Frederik had been on the throne for four years. Considering the circumstances, the relationship between the King and his successors remained understandably tense until his death eleven years later following an attack of erysipelas at the age of fifty-five.

1861.

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Johan Vilhelm Gertner (10 March 1818 – 28 March 1871), Danish painter, best known for his portraiture. One of the last students of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Gertner belonged to the waning days of the Danish Golden Age, a period during which Danish art moved towards a more realistic style, relying on inspiration both from French Realism and emerging photographic techniques. Gertner was born the son of a craftsman at the Holmen naval base. He attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1831 to 1837 and, later, he was a professor there beginning in 1858.