Charlotte Fossetta
Charlotte Fossetta (born January 25, 1777 in Mainz , † January 8, 1856 in Stuttgart ) worked for 41 years from 1796 to 1837 as a court actress at the court theater in Stuttgart.
Life
Charlotte Münch, married Ziegler or Fossetta or Fosetta was born on January 25, 1777 in Mainz as the daughter of the Mainz innkeeper Balthasar Münch and his wife Regina Schatz. In Mainz she received her first training for the theater. After engagements in Wetzlar, Koblenz and Augsburg, the almost 19-year-old was employed as an actress in the Hoftheater Stuttgart on January 6, 1796, to which she remained loyal for 41 years until her retirement in 1837.
Towards the end of 1803 Fossetta accepted an engagement at the Frankfurt National Theater. Elector Friedrich brought them back to the Hoftheater Stuttgart by decree of December 23, 1803. The 26-year-old was hired for "all the roles of funny old mothers, housekeepers, etc." and received a lifelong job, a fixed salary of 1200 guilders annually, a pension commitment of 800 guilders and the prospect of charity performances .
The 18-year-old poet Wilhelm Waiblinger raved about the Fossetta in his diary in 1822: “She was born to be a comical actress and is as good at facial expressions as she is at declamation.” He met her personally from her son-in-law Eduard Gnauth : “Dear Fossetta! That is a woman! I had a charming chat with her! Your sense of humor is superb! And then (probably to be taken into account) she really is a stately woman. "
The literary historian Konrad Beyer (1834–1906) reveled in the Fossetta 1897: “She was a dazzling beauty of enchanting grace, at the same time a gifted singer and actress. ... It was an adornment for all artistic circles in the royal seat. "
Retirement
In 1834 and 1835 she took a cure in Bad Wildbad at her own expense, in 1836 she was not granted leave for another cure. Fosetta suffered from rheumatic complaints, which she attributed to the initially unheated stage of the court theater. Since 1836 she also suffered from hearing loss, poor memory and general sickness. She therefore applied for her retirement, which was granted to her by the king in March 1837. On the occasion of her retirement, she was granted a benefit performance, for which she selected the farce "Of seven the ugliest".
Charlotte Fossetta died on January 8, 1856, almost 79 years old in Stuttgart. She outlived her husband Wilhelm Fossetta by 19 years, who had died in the year of her retirement in 1837 at the age of 61. The couple's grave was in Section 4 at the Fangelsbach Cemetery in Stuttgart before the cemetery was cleared.
family
Fossetta married the actor Johann Ziegler (1776–1800) in Mainz in his first marriage in 1794. Like her, he was born in Manz and from 1796 was also employed at the Hoftheater Stuttgart. Fossetta gave birth to a son and daughters Friederike and Henriette from 1795 to 1797, and in 1801 the illegitimate daughter Charlotte. Johann Ziegler died on April 13, 1800 at the age of 24.
On June 22, 1805, Fossetta married the court plasterer Wilhelm David Fossetta (1778-1839), who was descended from an Italian father from Venice and a German mother, in Stuttgart. On the occasion of the marriage, King Friedrich granted her a benefit performance to finance the home furnishings. The couple lived in their own house in Stuttgart, from 1811 on Neckarstraße and from 1833 on Charlottenstraße 8, where Fossetta continued to live as a widow from 1839.
The three daughters adopted the family name Fossetta. Charlotte Fossetta (1801–1865) married the Stuttgart court actor Eduard Gnauth in 1829 . The daughter Friederike became a choir player, Henriette became a court actress.
Benefit performances
The Württemberg king was able to grant members of the Stuttgart court theater a benefit performance (or mercy performance) on application “by grace”. In the case of a benefit performance, the proceeds from the box office went to the theater member in full or after deduction of the costs and, in contrast to the fixed salary, represented a “random income”. Fossetta, for example, received 200 guilders “without gifts” in 1805 for her benefit performance of “Maria Stuart” the ambassador ”, and the king added 100 guilders as usual.
In 41 years of service, Fossetta applied for 10 benefit performances, all but one of which were approved. In some cases she gave reasons for her applications, for example for furnishing the apartment after her marriage in 1805, three times to finance a spa stay in Bad Wildbad, in 1826 on the occasion of her 30th anniversary of service and in 1837 on her retirement. For the benefit performances, the employee could express a desired date and choose a favorite piece to perform. For Fossetta, the charity performances were a certain substitute for a raise. Since her fee remained unchanged throughout her entire service, Fossetta fell behind comparable colleagues over the years. However, her request to increase her fixed salary from 1200 to 1400 guilders was rejected in 1818.
Artist model
Gottlieb Schick , Portrait of Charlotte Fossetta, 1800 (see cover picture).
Philipp Hetsch, Charlotte Fossetta as a reclining nude.
Johann Heinrich Dannecker, Ariadne on the Panther, 1814.
The beautiful Fossetta was a popular model of famous Stuttgart artists of Swabian classicism. In 1800 Gottlieb Schick , the creator of many classic portraits of women, painted the 22-year-old Fossetta in a side view with reddish gold-colored shimmering hair, while studying roles, sitting at a table, dressed in a white robe tucked under her breast that wraps her body with many folds.
Philipp Friedrich von Hetsch portrayed the artist lying naked on a sofa bed. The photo of the painting in the Ludwigsburg State Archives is contained in an envelope with the inscription by an unknown archivist “supposedly the mistress of King Wilhelm I ”. A two-page manuscript from the Fossetta with the dramatic fragment “The King and the Actress” could contain an indication of a relationship between the actress and the king. Franz Seraph Stirnbrand created an oil portrait of the Fossetta in 1816, which shows her as "a powerful, voluptuous lady".
Fossetta's second husband, the court plasterer Wilhelm Fossetta, had attended the High Charles School together with the famous sculptor Johann Heinrich Dannecker . The literary historian Konrad Beyer (1834–1906) judged Fossetta's wife:
- "Dannecker liked to associate with this noble appearance, whose impartial, tactful judgment, their tender feeling, their enthusiasm for art warmed the imaginative master-"
Dannecker is said to have once said to her:
- "If I were so lucky to have a role model like you as a model, then true art should be blessed!"
And the artist is said to have replied:
- “And you really do believe that my manifestations of your art could really promote your art? - Well then, you have me if you think you can create something new and ingenious! "
In 1806 the Fossetta Dannecker sat as a model for his famous marble sculpture "Ariadne auf Naxos", and one of the two nymphs of the sculpture group " Water and Meadow Nymph " is said to have lent her an arm. The extent to which these traditions correspond to the truth remains to be seen. In any case, a contemporary art historian considers it a “studio anecdote”.
literature
Life
- Rudolf Krauss: The Stuttgart court theater from the oldest times to the present. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1908, page 168.
- Waltraud Pfäfflin; Friedrich Pfäfflin: The graves of the poets on the Stuttgart Hoppenlau cemetery. With an essay by Udo Dickenberger. Stuttgart 2015, page 384.
- State Archives Ludwigsburg, E 18 II Bü 313, Charlotte Fossetta-Ziegler , E 18 II Bü 314, Friderike Fossetta , E 18 II Bü 315, Henriette Fossetta ,
- Wilhelm Waiblinger: Works and Letters. Volume 5.2. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1981, pages 748-749.
- Hermann Ziegler: Fangelsbach cemetery. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1994, page 90.
Ariadne model
- C. Beyer: Danneckers Ariadne. In: Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, New Series, Volume 8, 1897, Issue 10, Pages 244–248, pdf .
- Otto von Breitschwert: The model for Dannecker's Ariadne [Charlotte Fossetta]. A look behind the scenes of art history. Frankfurt am Main: Carl Münch, 1886.
- Ellen Kemp: Ariadne on the panther. In: Christian von Holst (editor): Swabian classicism between ideal and reality, essays. Stuttgart: Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1993, page 307.
Web links
Footnotes
- ^ Stuttgart family register, Volume 2, page 145, Wilhelm Fossetta. - Different entry in the personnel sheet of the Stuttgart court theater from 1833 ( #Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg , Charlotte Fossetta-Ziegler, number 5): born on January 20, 1778 as the daughter of Caspar Münch, a landowner from Canada.
- ↑ #Breitschwert 1886 , pages 6–7.
- ↑ #Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg , Charlotte Fossetta-Ziegler, paragraph 7 below.
- ↑ #Waiblinger 1981 .
- ↑ #Beyer 1897 , page 245.
- ↑ #Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg , Charlotte Fossetta-Ziegler, number 6-25.
- ↑ #Ziegler 1994 .
- ^ Stuttgart address books.
- ↑ #Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg , Friederike Fossetta.
- ↑ #Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg , Henriette Fossetta.
- ↑ #Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg , Charlotte Fossetta-Ziegler, paragraph 6.
- ↑ #Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg , Charlotte Fossetta-Ziegler, number 66th
- ↑ #Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg , Charlotte Fossetta-Ziegler, number 1-3.
- ^ Marbach literature archive .
- ↑ #Waiblinger 1981 .
- ↑ #Beyer 1897 , pp. 245, 247.
- ↑ #Kemp 1993 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fossetta, Charlotte |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Münch, Charlotte (maiden name); Ziegler, Charlotte (married name); Fosetta, Charlotte |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 25, 1777 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mainz |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 8, 1856 |
| Place of death | Stuttgart |