David Matthieu, attributed to
Barbara Rosina Lisiewska-de Gasc, attributed to
Portrait of Duchess Helene Christiane Truchsess von Waldburg
Oil on canvas (relined). 81 x 65.5 cm.
Helena Christiane von Ludewig (1706-1776) was one of the three daughters of Johann Peter von Ludewig (1670-1743), Brandenburg ambassador during the peace conference of Rijswijk in 1697 which ended the Nine Years' War. Johann Peter von Ludewig was raised to nobility in 1719 and became chancellor of Halle University in 1721. His daughter Helene Christiane's first marriage was to Philipp Friedrich Krug von Nidda auf Döllnitz, Burg und Radewell (1689-1743) and her second to Count Otto Wilhelm Truchsess von Waldburg (1715-1748).
The present portrait is thought to be the work by David Matthieu which Friedrich Krug v. Nidda und v. Falkenstein mentions in an essay in the “Heimatkalender Nidda” from 1928.
Provenance
The Krug zu Nidda Collection, Schloss Frohwein. - Confiscated during the Russian occupation and presented to the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig in 1946. - Returned to the Krug von Nidda family in 1997.
Literature
Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig. Katalog der Gemälde 1995, ed. by Herwig Guratzsch & Dietulf Sander, Stuttgart 1995, p. 121, no. 1835.