Tea Party Hosted by Duchess Anna Amalia in Wittums Palace in Weimar (1783)

Anna Amalia, Duchess of Saxony, Weimar, and Eisenach (1739-1807), helped transform Weimar into a vibrant center of German intellectual life. Her literary salon, the Weimarer Musenhof, her patronage of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and her appointment of poet and writer Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813) as her sons' tutor were major factors in this cultural flowering. The image below provides a glimpse of some of the duchess’ guests (left to right): Duke Carl August, Goethe, Count Wedel, Duchess Anna Amalia herself, Johann Gottfried Herder, an unknown lady-in-waiting, Wieland, Karl Ludwig von Knebel, Count von Seckendorff; seated in front: Charlotte von Stein, Luise von Göchhausen. Painting by H.W. Schmidt, 1783.

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© Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz