King Ludwig I of Bavaria in Coronation Regalia

Joseph Karl Stieler painted this official coronation portrait of King Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1826, the year of his accession to the throne. Ludwig was one of the great art patrons of nineteenth-century Europe, transforming Munich into a center of neoclassical architecture and founding the Alte and Neue Pinakothek museums. Stieler was the leading Bavarian court portraitist, best known for his Gallery of Beauties.

The portrait follows the grand manner tradition of state portraiture with elaborate coronation robes and royal regalia rendered in meticulous detail. Stieler's smooth, polished technique and idealized treatment of the face present the monarch as an embodiment of royal dignity.