hennyjolzen:electronicgallery:Bust of Wilhelmine Benigna Biron by Bertel Thorvaldsen, 1818The young
hennyjolzen:electronicgallery:Bust of Wilhelmine Benigna Biron by Bertel Thorvaldsen, 1818The young duchess was very beautiful, intelligent, eloquent and educated in philosophy and history. …Wilhelmine spent the rest of her life moving between Vienna, Prague, Ratibořice and Sagan (Żagań). She also undertook journeys to Italy, England and France. Her second marriage with prince Vasily Troubetzkoy (1776–1841), which lasted from 1805 to 1806, also ended in divorce. In Vienna, she set up a salon attended by the highest nobility. An attractive woman, she attracted many aristocratic lovers. …Because of the impossibility of having any more children, she became a foster parent to many young girls. …Famous Czech author Božena Němcová (1820?–1862) was one of the poor family girls supported by Wilhelmine. Němcová portrayed Wilhelmine in her 1855 novel The Grandmother (Babička) as an ideal woman. The portrait is so touching that Czech collocation “paní kněžna” (meaning “the princess”) became a synonym for Wilhelmine. -- source link