Lot 46: Wilhelm Andreas Müller (German, 1733-1816)

Juliane-Marie (1729-96), Queen of Denmark, standing three-quarter length, resting her left arm on the back of an upholstered chair, she wears white-striped grey dress adorned with ribbon bows and white lace, pearl choker, earrings and frilled white headdress in her upswept powdered hair, she holds a closed fan and handkerchief, blue curtain with gold tassels and pillar in the background
painted on a thick ivory panel, gilded wood frame, the reverse indistinctly inscribed including the sitter's name
Oval, 135mm. (5 1/4ins.) high

Born in September 1729, Juliane-Marie of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel married, as his second wife, Frederick V, King of Denmark (1746-66). In 1772, she initiated a coup d'Etat against the "premier" Count Struense who had total influence over her stepson, the insane King Christian VII. Her son, Hereditary Prince Ferdinand and Premier Høegh-Guldberg became official leaders of the Government with her as the power behind the scenes, with the title Regent Dowager Queen. In 1784 they were removed by her stepson, Crown Prince Frederik. She died at Fredensborg in 1796. She is most remembered for the support she gave Frantz Henrich Müller to form the first Danish Porcelain factory (Royal Copenhagen) in 1775.
Müller was a pupil at the Academy of Copenhagen. He was appointed official painter to the King of Denmark in 1765. Portraits of the same sitter by Müller are in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum, Berlin and the Museum of Frederiksborg.