Caroline von Humboldt

She grew up in Erfurt and her parents' estates in Burgörner and Auleben, where she befriended the von Lengefeld sisters, Caroline (later one of her best friends) and Charlotte (later wife of the playwright Friedrich Schiller).

She took her three children on a 7-month trip from Paris to Spain, where she catalogued and wrote about Spanish artworks – her works on the topic were praised by Goethe, who published some of them.

Her favourite city was Rome, where she was in contact with several German and Danish artists living in the city (Gottlieb Schick, Christian Friedrich Tieck, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Wilhelm von Schadow, Karl Wilhelm Wach), financially supporting them and buying several of their works.

She had a particularly intense friendship with the sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch, whilst Angelika Kauffmann and Louis I of Bavaria also stayed in her house.

She also ran a form of literary salon in Berlin, where politicians, scientists and writers met.