Dowager Queen Juliane Marie of Denmark

Juliane Marie (1729-1796) was queen of Denmark between 1752 and 1766, second consort of king Frederik V of Denmark and Norway, mother of the prince-regent Hereditary Prince Frederick of Denmark and Norway and herself de facto regent 1772-1784. After her husband’s death she saw her position at the Danish court becoming marginalised by count Struensee, whose position as physician-in-ordinary to the mad King Christian VII made him the de facto ruler of Denmark during the first few years of the 1770s. She became one of the driving forces behind a coup against Struensee in 1772, the same year that Vigilius Eriksen from the Russian court received the commission for this portrait of her.