FRENCH ROMANTIC SCHOOL, 19TH CENTURY

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“Indian Beauties”

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oil on canvas, 46,5 x 38 cm

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Note:

Two beauties bedecked with jewels at their toilet, a eunuch in attendance holding a cup and a fly-whisk.

On the back of the frame a label “Privateigentum ........ des Herzogs Carl Eduard von Sachs. Coburg Gotha”.

Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the fourth and last reigning Duke from 1900 till 1918. Born in Claremont House, Surrey, son of Leopold, Duke of Albany, fourth son of Queen Victoria and Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Charles Edward’s mother was the sister of Queen Emma of the Netherlands. He was a Prince of the United Kingdom and Duke of Albany.

In 1900 he succeeded his uncle Alfred, who’s only son had committed suicide, as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
in Germany and changed his name to Carl Eduard. He fought as general on the German side in World War I and consequently was stripped of his peerage by George V

in 1919. At this time George V changed the name of the English Crown from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor. Carl Eduard later joined the Nazi Party, the SA and served in a number of positions in Nazi Germany. At the end of the war, he was arrested by the Americans, released in 1950 and died in 1954 in Coburg in poverty.

His daughter Sybilla married King Gustaaf Adolf of Sweden and his older sister was Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone.