This is a portrait of Wilhelmine, Countess of Lichtenau (1753-1820). She was s the official mistress of King Frederick William II of Prussia & was elevated by him into the ranks of the aristocracy.
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The portrait is full of highly sexually charged imagery. Apart from the nipples, kissing doves, the gushing water pipe, the splayed gun case, & the panting dog, all suggest naughtiness.
She was known as “Beautiful Wilhelmine" & was the subject & satire and faked memoirs. Including one that claimed all the rude bits have been omitted the language “was so gross and indelicate, that, out of respect to religion and morality, it was necessary to omit them.”
The portrait was painted by this woman; Polish artist, Anna Dorothea Therbusch (1721-1782). Anna was a child art prodigy, but gave it up when she married Berlin innkeeper Ernst Friedrich Therbusch in 1742 to help her husband in the restaurant.
When her husband died in 1760, Anna returned to art. Starting over at 40 years old she achieved considerable success. The French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture displayed her work and she became an honorary member of the Stuttgart Academy of the Arts.
French philosopher Denis Diderot (1713-84) said of Anna,
But such remarks seem to be an over compensation for his feelings for her. In 1767, he sat for Anna so she could draw his portrait from the neck up. According to his letters, Diderot felt his clothes were in the way, so entirely stripped off. He wrote....
Anna, ever the professional, finished the drawing and Diderot put his clothes back on and wrote letters to his friends about the whole thing.
…anicreview.journals.cdrs.columbia.edu/wp-content/upl…
The image drawn hasn’t survived, but this is a replica of it.
Quite what was going on between them is not fully known, but they became close and he introduced her to the leading lights of the Parisian art world.
Anna went on to paint portraits of some of the most powerful people in Europe, including Catherine the Great.
She died in Berlin on 9 November 1782 and was buried at Dorotheenstadt cemetery. Anna’s relationship with Diderot inspired Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt to write his play Der Freigeist ("The Free Spirit"), also known as Der Libertin ("The Libertine").
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