Jan de Baen, workshop or circle, Portrait of Princess Elector Dorothea Sophie ...

Jan de Baen, workshop or circle

Portrait of Princess Elector Dorothea Sophie of Brandenburg

Oil on canvas. 132 x 99 cm.

** Provenance
Aristocratic ownership, Rhineland.

Inscribed to the back of the canvas: "Princesse von holstein Churfürstin von Brandenbourg / 2ten gemahlin vom Frederich wilm Churfürst von / Brandenburg“. The canvas has not been relined and bears some damage and losses to the pigment.

Dorothea Sophie (1636-1689) was the daughter of Duke Philipp of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and Sophie Hedwig of Sachsen-Lauenburg. Her first marriage was to Duke Christian Ludwig von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, brother-in-law to the Danish King Frederick III, in 1653. Her second marriage in 1668 was to Prince Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg, the so-called “Great Elector”. The historic Dorotheenstadt quarter of Berlin bears her name. The sitter's pose and the electoral crown resting on the table are reminiscent of the portrait of the Electress by Jan de Baen in Schloss Caputh, Potsdam (SPSG, GK I 3008).