Portrait of Maria Antonia Countess of Branconi

"After an original painting sto[chen] A. Weger Leipzig. \nCountess Branconi.\n('The beautiful woman.')\nPrint by Th. Zehl junior in Leipzig.\"\nPosthumous portrait of Maria Antonia Countess of Branconi, née von Elsener (* 27 October 1746 in Genoa; † 7 July 1793 in Abano). As a girl of 12 she was married to Johannes Josephus Franciscus Pessina de Branconi, who died in 1766 and with whom she had two children. That same year she became the official mistress of Charles William Ferdinand (1735-1806), heir to the throne of Brunswick, to whom she bore a son in 1767. Branconi was considered the most beautiful woman in Germany at the time. In 1774 she and her three children were made knights of the imperial nobility by Emperor Joseph II. The heir to the throne separated from her in 1777. In 1779 Branconi met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Lausanne, with whom she began a correspondence. Goethe visited her in 1783 and 1784 in Langenstein and sent her manuscripts of his works.