Portrait of Melusine Sophie, Countess Von Der Schulenburg C.1741; Circle of Antoine Pesne (1683-1757)

Oil on canvas.

In this portrait, painted in 1741, the sitter has been depicted wearing a crimson dress decorated profusely with silver embroidery, white lace cuffs, and a dark blue wrap draped over one shoulder. She is set on a portico beside a column and before a landscape affording a feeling of classism. The youthful sitter is Melusine Sophie, Countess von der Schulenburg (1713-1803) who belonged to a very old Brandenburg and Prussian family who trace their line to a knight in 1237, Wernerus of Sculenburch. The family were often Marshals, Generals and senior officers within the Prussian army. Ehrengard Melusine Schulenburg (1667-1743) Duchess of Kendal, Countess of Feversham, Baroness Glastonbury was a mistress of King George I of Great Britain. Count Fritz-Dietlof Schulenburg (1902-1944) and Count Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg (1875- 1944) both opposed Hitler and as such paid the ultimate price on 10 Nov 1944.

On verso an inscription states the sitter’s identity, the date she was born, married, and the date of 1741 that the portrait was painted, along with the “widow of Barnewitz”. Melusine Sophie was one of 12 children by her father Christian Günther von der Schulenburg (1684-1765) who was the progenitor of the House von der Schulenburg-Hehlenwho and Mayor or Hanover and Hedwig Ernestine von Steinberg (1692-1750). The family estate is the moated castle of Schloss Hehlen (see photos) - an immense four wing and three storied defensive building at the mouth of the river Weißenwasser in the Weser. The family sold the estate in 1956 ending almost 400 years of continuity. Her father, along with his brother Adolph Friedrich Freiherr von der Schulenburg (1685-1741), were generals in the Prussian army and they received noble titles from Emperor Charles VI in 1728. Adolph initiated the Wolfsburg branch of the family and this branch has remained in the same locality to this day, 22 generations later. Adolph at the age of 16 went in 1701 to the Knights Academy in Lüneburg and began his military career in 1705 with the Hanoverian army. From 1724 he commanded in Landsberg an der Warthe a Prussian dragoon regiment, which was later named after him. The King, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, was a confident and Adolph became a close advisor and when the king died his son Friedrich II awarded him the highest Prussian award, the Black Eagle. However, Adolph had an increasingly adversarial rapport with the new King and as such requested retirement. The king refused and sent him in 1741 to the First Silesian War, where he fell on April 10, 1741 at the Battle of Mollwitz.

Melusine Sophie married Christoph Friedrich August Von Barnewitz (1706-1739) and together they had one daughter, Christine Sophie Louise von Barnewitz (1735-1810). Her grandfather, Friedrich Achaz von der Schulenburg (1647-1701) was a high-ranking court official of the Brunswick dukes and he married Margarethe Gertrud nee von der Schulenburg (1659-1697), sister of Venetian Field Marshal Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg.

An intriguing portrait and is perhaps the only surviving image of this noble lady. Painted by the circle of Antoine Pesne, who worked for the Prussian court. Pesne is known to have depicted many members of this noble family. Presented in a fine swept frame.

Antoine Pesne (1683-1757), French-born Rococo painter of historical subjects and portraits who was the most important artist in Prussia in the first half of the 18th century and he became one of the fathers of rococo in painting. His work represents a link between the French school and the Frederican rococo style. His father, the painter Thomas Pesne, and his maternal great-uncle, Charles de La Fosse, had an early influence. He was trained in Paris and awarded his first prize in 1703. While studying in Paris, he was influenced by the leading French portraitists

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