Auguste Strobl (1807 – 1871) was a daughter of a royal chief accountant.
Her beauty caught the eye of King Ludwig I who wrote her poems and had her painted by the court artist Joseph Stieler for his Gallery. Stieler’s first version over-emphasised Auguste’s goose-neck and displeased its commissioner. As Ludwig had wanted Strobl’s beauty documented naturalistically, he forbade Stieler to amend this first version to correct or reduce the neck. Stieler had to paint Auguste again, but this time in an uncomfortable position, with the neck somewhat hidden by a necklace. Ludwig briefly considered placing both Stieler’s versions in his Gallery, but in the end only chose to take the second one. The first one was lost, perhaps being given back to the artist, until it resurfaced on the art market in 1976 and bought by Munich’s Residenzmuseum. A miniature painting by Stieler of the second version is in a private collection.
In 1831, with Ludwig’s approval, Auguste married the forester Hilber von Ergoldsbach, with whom she had 5 children. Ludwig visited her in 1835 and took this chance to address one last poem to her – he possibly offered her the first version of the painting to her as a present on this occasion, with it being refused. No other details of her life are known.