Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 23).djvu/24

 A King's Gallery of Beauty.

By S. K. LUDOVIC.

KING LUDWIG I OF BAVARIA, who died in 1868, and to whom the re- nowned collection of the Gallery of Beauties at the Royal Castle at Munich is due, was a man of exquisite gifts. Being a great connoisseur, his influence was of the utmost importance on the development of art in Germany.

One of his first acts when he came to the throne was to restore what was left, in the quaint old Bavarian towns, of moated walls, towers, and abbeys which French vandalism had so gravely in- jured in 1813, His greatest in- terest was centred in the study of history, and his love of art was the out- come of his thorough know- ledge of the classics. By artists he was truly loved. They appreciated his fine under- standing and his critical opinion even more than his kindness. Ludwig Schwan- thaler, the celebrated pupil of Thor- waldsen, owes his whole career to King Ludwig’s encouragement and help. Tt is said that Schwanthaler's figures above the portal of the "Walhalla" at Ratisbon are the finest sculptures since the antique. When Ludwig was Crown Prince he was much in the society of artists, and was often seen at the Café Greco, the chief place of meeting among the Munich painters. He was one of the gayest among them. In the new Pinakothek is a picture in which the artist - Prince is depicted sitting with his friends at a Weinkneipe and partaking of a hearty breakfast.

The collection of portraits of beautiful women was not suggested with a view to pay compliments to the bearers of great names, though it is to a great extent a highly aristo- cratic bevy of beauties which has been im- mortalized by the subtle brush of Joseph von Stieler, the Court painter. The King desired to collect these por- traits indepen- dent of rank and position. During his lonely walks he succeeded in discovering many a subject for his collection. Wherever he saw a lovely woman’s face he sent his faithful Stieler with a request for the necessary sittings to secure a portrait. No woman resisted such a compli- ment paid to her beauty, and thus it came about that in the same room with the portrait of Queen Marie of Bavaria we find one of a girl who served the foaming Bavarian beer to the guests at her father’s inn. These two pictures are, perhaps, among the most beautiful of the collection ; but individual taste has always more to do with the decision of the question of beauty than all the rules of art.

We will now proceed to reproduce, we believe for the first time in this country, a selection from the portraits in this unique gallery.