Duitse school: Portretten van Oscar I, koning van Noorwegen en Zweden, en zijn vrouw Josephine, olie op doek, 19de eeuw

Work: 70,5 x 57 cm

Frame: 95 x 80,5 cm

Oscar I (born Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte; 4 July 1799 – 8 July 1859) was King of Sweden and Norway from 8 March 1844 until his death. He was the second monarch of the House of Bernadotte. As the only child of King Charles XIV John, Oscar inherited the thrones upon the death of his father. He married Josephine Maximiliane Napoleone (1807-1876), first by proxy at the Leuchtenberg Palace in Munich on 22 May 1823 and in person at a wedding ceremony conducted in Stockholm on 19 June 1823. She was the eldest daughter of Eugène de Beauharnais and his wife Auguste, Princess of Bavaria. She was thus step-granddaughter of Napoleon Bonaparte, granddaughter of his wife Joséphine de Beauharnais and granddaughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, which was reflected in the choice of her first name (link).

This high quality pair is made after the 1823 marriage portraits by the German painter Joseph Karl Stieler (1781-1858). However, the Stieler portraits are no longer part of the same collection: the portrait of Oscar I was sold at Sotheby's, London in 1991 (Nov. 17, no. 99) and the Josephine painting at Neumeister in 2015 (Oct. 29, 2015, Auktion 922, no. 11, €50.800, link).

Provenance:

- Sotheby's, Regensburg, 'Die Fürstliche Sammlung Thurn und Taxis', 19-21 October 1993, lot 3086 (StE4295 and StE4296; Schloss St. Emmeram).

Ref.:

- U. von Hase, Josef Stieler 1781-1858. Sein Leben und sein Werk. Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke, Munich, 1971, nr 99-101.