Portrait of King Maximilian I of Bavaria
After John Walsh, 1825

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Maximilian I
John Walsh (1757-1816) (after)
F. Lauter (lithographer)
Maximilian I
Strixner, Stuttgart: 1825
Black and white lithograph
17.5 x 10.75 inches
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

Portrait of Maximilian I, king of Bavaria, wearing his crown and holding a scepter, standing before a window through which can be seen a rocky landscape in the distance.

Maximilian I, (1756-1825), was the elector (1799-1806) and then the king (1806-25) of Bavaria as Maximilian IV Joseph. He earned his royal title through his alliance with French Emperor Napoleon I and the vast territorial increases at the Treaty of Pressburg (1805) made him one of the chief members of the Confederation of the Rhine. His daughter was married to Napoleon's stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais. However, after Napoleon's retreat from Russia in 1813, he joined the coalition against Napoleon a few days before the battle of Leipzig and in the two years following the Congress of Vienna lost some of his territorial gains. Maximilian wanted to retain the independence of Bavaria, and so he opposed all moves to unite Germany. An enlightened ruler by the standards of his time, he carried out important social reforms, granted his subjects a liberal constitution and abolished most of the relics of feudalism in Bavaria.

Johann Nepomuk Strixner (1782-1855) was a lithographer with a printing firm based in Stuttgart. He was taught lithography by the inventor of the process, Alois Senefelder.

References:

"Early German Lithography from the State Hermitage Collection." St. Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum. 2002. http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/04/hm4_1_t.html (11 April 2002).

"Johann Nepomuk Strixner." http://www.sternburg-stiftung.de/druckgraphik/popup_73.html

"Maximilian I, 1756-1825, king and elector of Bavaria." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. Online at http://www.bartleby.com/65/ma/Maxi1Bav.html (11 April 2002).