File:Johann Lorenz Kreul - "Luise, Duchess of Wuerttemberg with her son Paul".png

"At the sale of Hamburg auction house "Stahl" on November 28th 2010, we acquired a large-sized, signed pastel by well-known Wuerttemberg court portraitist of the turn of 19th century, Johann Lorenz Kreul. Whereas the authorship of this 1st-class painting was clear from the start, the auction house expert's description of the sitters group immediately raised doubts. In the catalogue entry of lot nr.22 (see image nr.11), we read the following: "The depicted lady according to oral tradition (of item supplier) is a Princess of Royal House Wuerttemberg - either Sophie Dorothea, who later became Tsarina Maria Fedorovna of Russia (consort of Paul I), or her sister Wilhelmine". However, the pastel is painted around 1800 (the hairstyles of depicted persons provide this dating). Also, Tsarina Maria Fedorovna, then at the age of 40, looked entirely different - see her known portraits. Similarly, the depicted lady could by no means be Maria Fedorovna's sister Wilhelmine. The latter (her full name - Elisabeth Wilhelmine Luise) died while giving birth in 1790, at the mere age of 23. She did bear a daughter, who died prematurely one and a half years later in 1791. Two other sisters of Maria Fedorovna - Friederike Elisabeth Amalie (1765-1785) and Friederike Wilhelmine Katharina (born and died in 1768) are also out of the question. After a lengthy research, we were able to accurately identify the name. In fact, we were "assisted" by another pastel of Johann Lorenz Kreul, namely his 1800 pastel portrait of the 3-year-old Paul, Duke of Wuerttemberg (see our image nr.12). On this portrait, we see the same child as in our painting (in which, though dressed in girl's dress, he is distinguished as a boy by wearing blue sash and shoes!). Consequently, we arrive at the name of his mother (whose portraits were unknown until today!) - it is Duchess Luise of Wuerttemberg, nee Princess of Stolberg-Gedern (see our image nr.13) [...] Finally, between May 2009 (auction house "Lemperth") and November 2010 (auction house "Stahl", where we acquired this work), this work was clearly shown to a certain (German) art historian, who must have found the depicted child (Duke Paul) somewhat familiar (we assume that he subconsciously thought of the only other Paul's portrait by Kreul - image nr.12). Hence, without going into details, he or she informed the new owner that the depicted lady must have been one of the princesses of House Wuerttemberg, which resulted in a mistake (Maria Fedorovna and her sister Wilhelmine!)." Wilnitsky