Louise Seidler

Her love of art was only developed under the sculptor Friedrich Wilhelm Eugen Döll, who had returned to Gotha after an eleven-year stay in Rome.

Goethe stayed in Dresden for 10 days on his trip back from Karlsbad, and was so pleased with Louise's copy of Carlo Dolce's "Saint Cecilia" that he invited her to Weimar, where she painted his portrait.

In winter 1811 she was invited to Gotha by duke Augustus to paint him, his second wife Karoline Amalie and Princess Louise (his daughter by his first marriage).

Her mother's death on 23 September 1814 marked a break in her life, since she returned to her father in Jena as head of the household, though she still saw success in her artistic work.

Even so, she still copied Raphael's "Portrait of Bindo Altoviti" in Munich for the Duke and produced a drawing of the friezes of Leo von Klenze's Apollotempel at the Nymphenburg Palace for Goethe.

She lived in the artistic circle of the city (usually based on the Pincian Hill), also frequented by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld and the brothers Johann and Philipp Veit.

In reports Louise called her time in Italy the happiest of her life, but this period came to a sudden end when in 1823 she received news that her father had fallen seriously ill and she had to return to Germany.

On the recommendation of Goethe and Johann Heinrich Meyer duke Charles Augustus put her in charge of the education of his daughter Maria and Augusta.

On her father's death she was able to return to Italy, but was prevented from doing so when in 1824 Charles Augustus made her custodian of the grand-ducal art collection in Weimar's Grossen Jägerhaus.