Lot 2522 Dα

Ludwigslust Palace still preserves a curious wooden panel from 1776 showing the Mecklenburg court dwarf Hartwig Kremer presenting a framed portrait of Duchess Luise Friederike, apparently placed on an armchair, with his hat respectfully doffed. This relief panel, sawn out of wood and painted, is rounded off by a small dog. The present unfinished portrait is thought to be a study for the depiction of the Duchess on the figural panel, as it shows Luise Friederike with exactly the same coiffured and powdered hairstyle beneath a lace bonnet.
The painter of the whimsical wooden figure, like our "nonfinito" portrait, was Georg David Matthieu, who came from a large family of Berlin artists. He was a son of the portrait painter David Matthieu and his wife Dorothea Elisabeth, a daughter of the Berlin court painter Georg Lisiewsky.


The sitter, Duchess Luise Friederike (1722-1791), was a Princess of Württemberg by birth. In 1746 she married the Hereditary Prince Friedrich zu Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who succeeded his father in the government ten years later (for more on Luise Friederike see Ulrike Wendt-Sellin: Herzogin Luise Friederike von Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1722-1791). Ein Leben zwischen Pflicht, Pläsier und Pragmatismus, Cologne 2016. The cover shows the panel with the court dwarf).