Gallery of Beauties

The Gallery of Beauties (German: Schönheitengalerie) is a collection of 38 portraits of the most beautiful women from the nobility and bourgeoisie of Munich, Germany, gathered by Ludwig I of Bavaria in the south pavilion of his Nymphenburg Palace.^[1] All but two were painted between 1827 and 1850 by Joseph Karl Stieler (appointed court painter in 1820), the others by Friedrich Dürck, a student of his.

The collection's best-known works are the portraits of the shoemaker's daughter Helene Sedlmayr, the actress Charlotte von Hagn, Marianna Marquesa Florenzi, and Eliza Gilbert (the king's Irish mistresses better known as Lola Montez). They also include a Briton, a Greek, a Scot and an Israelite, along with relations of Ludwig's – the wife and daughter of Ludwig of Oettingen-Wallerstein were both painted, as was Ludwig I's daughter Princess Alexandra of Bavaria.

All 38 models were rewarded by Ludwig I. He took over their dowry, paid them an allowance or found them a job at court. He remained in active correspondence with some of them for years, while others only briefly crossed his life.^[2]