, showing
Ludwig I and Stieler during a meeting with
Helene Sedlmayr Before the Gallery of Beauties was created, there was a small scandal around 1817 because of two works by
Joseph Karl Stieler. He had painted a portrait of
Countess Rambaldi, one of the mistresses of Ludwig I (while still crown prince), which allegorically depicted the Countess as a
Madonna in order to anonymize her. This portrait was hung next to that of Ludwig I, and the public recognized the motif and was outraged. Ludwig I's portrait, which
Nathanael von Schlichtegroll described as a "masterpiece" in a letter to
Georg Issel, was then removed. The excitement over this painting was probably one of the reasons why Ludwig I decided to create a more anonymous gallery, which was first mentioned in 1821. At this point, Stieler, still a court painter without a fixed salary, offered portraits of Madame Lang and an Italian opera singer,
Adelaide Schiasetti. Both works were kept out of the gallery. According to the King's will, the gallery was to be primarily a collection of patriotic beauties, although foreign women were also represented, and posterity should be able to recognize how the character of female beauty was expressed at that time. When Ludwig I began his expansion of the
Munich Residenz in 1826, he planned the rooms in which the collection would hang. The plan for the rooms called for red and green
stucco marble in wide, horizontal layering for the walls, which were to be finished with a base zone of around 80 cm. The coffered ceiling and door panels were decorated with tendril ornaments. In 1828, in a letter to
Johann Georg von Dillis, he named the first ten works that were to be exhibited in the rooms under construction: , second version, painted in January 1827 •
Marianna Florenzi •
Isabella von Tauffkirchen-Engelberg •
Charlotte von Hagn •
Auguste Strobl (2) •
Antonietta Cornelia Vetterlein •
Maximiliane Borzaga •
Nanette Kaulla •
Regina Daxenberger •
Anna Hillmayer These ten portraits were also presented to the public in 1829 as part of an art exhibition together with Stieler's portrait of
Goethe. Nanette Kaulla's portrait was unfinished at this point. Others were added, so that when they were moved to the finished rooms in 1835, 17 portraits created over the last eight years or so could be exhibited: •
Amalie von Krüdener •
Jane Law, Baroness Ellenborough •
Amalia von Schintling •
Helene Sedlmayr •
Crescentia, Princess of Oettingen-Wallerstein •
Irene von Arco-Stepperg •
Caroline von Holnstein '', 1847.
Lola Montez, mistress of Ludwig I and ultimately the reason for his abdication, was the penultimate subject for Stieler's gallery of beauties Over the next 15 years, Stieler completed 19 other paintings and finished his work with the portraits of
Lola Montez and
Maria Dietsch. Cosmetic corrections were made to the latter because in Stieler's opinion, Dietsch was "not an excellent beauty". The painter also had difficulties with his penultimate work for the gallery, the portrait of Lola Montez: he feared the reaction of the public, which did not have much use for Montez. Ludwig I had to ask him to paint her several times in 1846. He ended up painting her in the costume of a
Spanish dancer, with a relatively bare upper body and a mask in her hand. Ludwig I was outraged by the motif and had it painted again in black velvet. The King was also not enthusiastic about the result of Stieler's work, whose motivation was rather low: "Your brush is getting old", criticized Ludwig I. Stieler replied to the King: "But nice enough for an old brush." When
Marianna Florenzi, from whom Ludwig I repeatedly sought advice, including on state matters, was told that the portrait of Lola Montez was now hanging next to hers, she categorically demanded that her portrait be taken down, and threatened to withdraw her favor otherwise. In 1861, Ludwig I commissioned Stieler's nephew and student
Friedrich Dürck (1809–1884) to create two more portraits for the collection. This is how the only two paintings in the collection that did not come directly from Stieler were created:
Anna von Greiner and
Carlotta Boos zu Waldeck. Since the ballroom building was destroyed during
World War II, the collection moved to the small dining room at
Nymphenburg Palace. The original plan was to have them resume their place soon. ==List==