Lot 19: Pietro Luchini , Italian 1800-1883 Portrait of Katerina Rosa Botsaris oil on canvas

signed and dated Pietro Luchini Fece Milano 1845 lower right oil on canvas

207 by 159cm., 81½ by 62¾in.

Ordas y Norris, Madrid
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1970

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR, SPAIN
Katerina Rosa Botsaris was the daughter of Markos Botsaris, the famed Greek klepht leader of the Greek War of Independence. Upon the accession of King Otto of Greece (1833-1862) and after his marriage to Amalia of Oldenburg, Katerina Botsaris was taken into the Queen's service. The arrival of the Bavarian Queen Amalia and King Otto in 1837 was greeted with excitement by the Greek people, the citizens of a newly-autonomous Greek state under King Otto. Queen Amalia's creation of a folk dress inspired a national Greek costume known as the 'Amalia dress', as worn by Katerina Botzaris in her 1841 portrait by Joseph Stieler, commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria.

Katerina Botsaris was greatly admired in the Greek and European courts for her beauty, and a damask rose bred in 1856 was named 'Rosa Botzaris' after her. In 1944 she got married to the military officer George Karatzas, who descended from the Fanari region. They had four children.