(1845–1933) -Prince Alexander I of Bulgaria, full-length portrait in uniform with medals, oil on canvas, 157 x 100 cm, gilt carved wooden frame with crown, sceptre and imperial orb, (Lu), signed and dated "K.Dilitz Sofia 1881"

Provenance:
Prince Alexander I of Bulgaria

Alexander I (* 5 April 1857 in Verona; † 17 November 1893 in Graz), born Prince Alexander Joseph of Battenberg, was the elected Prince of Bulgaria from 1879 until 1886.

Alexander Joseph of Battenberg was the second son of Prince Alexander of Hesse-Darmstadt by the latter’s morganatic marriage with Countess Julia Hauke, a former lady-in-waiting to his aunt, Russian czarina Maria Alexandrovna. His mother gained from her brother-in-law, Grand Duke Louis III of Hesse-Darmstadt, the title of Countess, later Princess of Battenberg. Alexander and his brothers held the title of Princes of Battenberg until 1889. After attending the Ludwig-Georgs-Gymnasium in Darmstadt, he became lieutenant in the 24th Grand Ducal Hessian Dragoons’ Regiment. In 1877, he participated with Grand Duke Nicholas in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 in Bulgaria. He subsequently joined the Garde du Corps in Berlin.

Prince of Bulgaria
After the Congress of Berlin, Bulgaria became an autonomous principality under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. Alexander’s participation in the campaign against the Turks and his close kinship with Czar Alexander II of Russia, who was his uncle, made him the ideal candidate for the leadership of the newly created principality. On 29 April 1879, the Grand National Assembly unanimously elected Prince Alexander as Prince of Bulgaria. On 8 July, he took the oath to the new constitution of the principality at Turnovo, subsequently establishing his residence in Sofia.

Marriage and issue
In 1883 Prince Alexander announced his engagement to Princess Viktoria of Prussia, called Moretta, the daughter of the soon-to-be German Emperor Frederick III and his wife Victoria of Great Britain. Her grandfather, Emperor William I, and Prince Bismarck were against the engagement for political reasons, and forbade their marriage. Viktoria fought against the ban for many years in vain, since Bismarck continued to oppose the marriage decisively. In 1888 the engagement was finally called off for reasons of state.

On 6 February 1889, he married Johanna Loisinger (1865–1951), an opera singer, in Menton, France. After their marriage, the couple assumed the style of Count and Countess von Hartenau and retired into private life. Alexander joined the Austrian imperial army and lived in Graz with his family. There were a son and a daughter from this marriage:

Assen Ludwig Alexander, Count von Hartenau (1890–1965)
Zwetana Marie Therese Vera, Countess von Hartenau (1893–1935)
(Alexander Doczy)