The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

Die Miniatur Über den Künstler

The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

DE
The Miniature About the Artist

Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

George Lethbridge Saunders (attributed)

Duchess Luise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1800-1831)1 was the daughter of Duke August of Saxe-Altenburg and Luise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She married Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha from 1826) and died at the age of thirty-one. Her first son, Ernst was born in 1818,and later became Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Her second son Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and later husband of Queen Victoria, followed in 1819.
This plain but skilful portrait shows an unobtrusive choice of colours. Despite the sitter’s vivid facial expression, the statue-like quality of the bust representation might suggest it was created posthumously.

D. O. / J. S. O.

1 The proposed identification of the lady as Alexandrine Louise Amalie Friederike Elisabeth Sophie, Duchess of Saxony, Coburg and Gotha (1820-1904), is unlikely in view of the dating of the miniature and the age of the sitter.