Princess Crescentia of Oëttingen-Wallerstein born Maria Crescentia Bourgin (3 May 1806 – 22 June 1853) is a German noblewoman who married Prince Louis of Oettingen-Wallerstein. She appeared in the Gallery of Beauties gathered by King Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1836.[1]
Crescentia Bourgin was born in Füssen on 3 May 1806, the daughter of the court gardener Nicolas Bourgin from Burgundy, France. The winery owner and royalist Bourgin was given the position of court gardener in the Principality of Oettingen-Wallerstein and lived in Baldern Castle.[2]
On 7 July 1823 Crescentia Bourgin married the family's eldest son, Prince Louis Ernest Carl von Oettingen-Oettingen and Wallerstein (1791–1870). The couple had two daughters:[3]
In 1802, Prince Louis of Oettingen – initially under the guardianship of his mother, Duchess Wilhelmine Friederike of Württemberg (1764–1817) – followed his father in the government of the small principality, which was mediatized in 1806. He had a close friendship with the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig, later King Ludwig I. Prince Louis temporarily lost his position as Bavarian chief steward because of the inappropriate marriage, and within the family he had to renounce his birthrights. Nevertheless, he not only managed to regain his crown office after Ludwig I came to power, his political career brought him, among other things, the office of Bavarian Ministry of the Interior in 1831, and in 1846/47 he was Bavarian envoy in Paris.
Princess Crescentia was described by her contemporaries as a quiet, shy woman with great kindness. During the cholera epidemic in 1836, she and her husband tried as much as they could to alleviate the suffering of the suffering population. Crescentia died of a heart attack at the age of just 47 on 22 June 1853. Her husband survives her by 17 years. It became clear afterwards how much his wife must have been a wise support to him. After ruining himself due to clumsy political behavior and property speculation, he was forced to seek shelter in his son-in-law's house in Lucerne, tormented by material worries. [4]
In 1833, Ludwig I of Bavaria thought that the beautiful Princess Crescentia was deemed worthy to be included in the series of 36 portraits in the famous Gallery of Beauties (today in Nymphenburg Palace). Princess Crescentia and Prince Louis of Oettingen's daughter Caroline (married Count Hugo Philipp Waldbott von Bassenheim) was also portrayed by Joseph Stieler for this gallery in 1843. In May 1836 – apparently on the occasion of the 30th. Joseph Stieler created the present portrait on the occasion of the princess's birthday on May 3. The basic disposition is based on the painting from 1833, but the character of the portrait is varied: the princess is now depicted with hair in ringlets, lace scarf, pearl band, low shoulder maroon gown, and lace tucker. In front of the dignified motif of a pillar architecture, the depiction is no longer a half-length portrait, but rather a half-length figure, which represents the forearm and the hand with the bouquet of Forget me not flowers.[5]