Double portrait of Princes Friedrich of Prussia and Wilhelm zu Solms-Braunfels in cuirassier uniforms
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| Double portrait of Princes Friedrich of Prussia and Wilhelm zu Solms-Braunfels in cuirassier uniforms |
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| Wilhelm von Schadow , 1830 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 134 × 134 cm |
| Museum Kunstpalast , Düsseldorf |
The double portrait of Prince Friedrich of Prussia and Wilhelm zu Solms-Braunfels in cuirassier uniforms is a double portrait of the painter Wilhelm von Schadow . It shows the half-brothers Friedrich von Prussia and Wilhelm zu Solms-Braunfels in front of a Rhine landscape . In the monumental tondo , which was commissioned by Prince Friedrich in Düsseldorf in 1830 , the tradition of the ruler's portrait in uniform is combined with the new type of romantic portrait of friendship.
Description and meaning
The knee image shows the brotherhood of princes who shared about her mother, Friederike of Mecklenburg , half-brothers were. As a sign of fraternal friendship , the elder, Friedrich von Prussia, the younger, Wilhelm zu Solms-Braunfels, who fixes the viewer over his shoulder, puts his hand on his shoulder. Both are dressed in cuirassier uniforms and hold their swords ready for use in their hands. Their poses correspond to aristocratic stature. According to contemporary ideas, the prince's appearance and outfit express male military competence as well as courtly elegance.
Friedrich had been in command of the 14th Division of the Prussian Army stationed in Düsseldorf since 1820 and as the nephew of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. highest representative of the Hohenzollern in the first since 1815 to Prussia belonging Rhine country . He resided at Schloss Jägerhof like a “replacement king” . As a public figure , he took on numerous representative tasks in Düsseldorf and the Rhine Province . In this context it was up to him, by embodying Prussian virtues, to convince skeptical Must Prussians of the new role of Prussia as the protective power of Germany on the Rhine.
In the painting Friedrich wears the uniform of the Silesian Cuirassier Regiment. 1 , the regimental commander he was, his half-brother to William, the regiment of the Gardes du Corps , which the Prussian king as Leibregiment commanded. As a military badge of honor, Friedrich's chest is decorated with the Iron Cross , which his uncle donated to commemorate the Wars of Liberation , and the ribbon is decorated with the blue Maltese Cross of the Prussian order Pour le Mérite . Friedrich had received the Iron Cross 2nd class for bravery crossing the Rhine near Kaub . Symbolically reciprocating the friendship, Wilhelm's hand is reflected on Friedrich's bare breastplate .
The painter set the fraternization scene in the Middle Rhine Valley near Rheinstein Castle . This castle, which Friedrich bought as a ruin at the suggestion of Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1823 and converted it into his summer residence in the following years according to plans by Johann Claudius von Lassaulx and others, appears on the left edge of the picture. The flag of Prussia flies on the keep as a sign of occupation . The heroic landscape depicted in the form of Rhine romanticism , which with the castle is reminiscent of medieval knighthood , makes the princes appear like “new knights on the Rhine” and idealizes them in the context of national romanticism of the 19th century. In connection with the Prussian symbols shown in the picture, the motif of fraternization in the sense of political iconography condenses into a “demonstration of state-supporting Prussian power and military offices” as well as “German national culture” on the Rhine ( Bettina Baumgärtel ).
Origin and provenance
Friedrich von Prussia commissioned the picture from Wilhelm Schadow , the Nazarene director of the Düsseldorf Art Academy and founder of the Düsseldorf School of Painting , probably to present his mother, who was married to Duke Ernst August von Cumberland , as a present.
At first, Friedrich only connected Schadow to the traditional relationships between the Prussian royal family and the Schadow family of artists. Over time, closer relationships developed between the two. Contrary to court etiquette, Friedrich and his wife Luise , who was taught by Schadow as a painter, even attended the performance of tableaux vivants and other amusements in Schadow's private home. At about the same time as the double portrait of the princes, Schadow created the portrait of Friedrich's wife, which he also designed as a tondo.
In 1829 the model sessions began on the double portrait of the prince, which is one of the artist's masterpieces and portrait painting of the 19th century. It occupies a special position in Schadow's oeuvre, also because he designed the tondo, which is usually made in a smaller, more intimate format intended for private purposes, comparatively monumental with a diameter of 134 cm. With this format he tried to make the princes, who are placed in their romantic bond of friendship through the motif of the Rhenish castle as “new knights” in the sublime context of a historical tradition and national political task, appear even more heroic. The fact that and how in the double portrait the private and family aspects of the sitter overlap with their allegorically assigned historical and political ideals is a novelty in Schadow's work.
In the gilded stucco frame probably designed by Schadow himself, the picture was presented to the public in September 1830 at the academy exhibition in the gallery wing of the Düsseldorf Palace , and soon afterwards in an art exhibition in Berlin . From there it went to London , where the Duchess lived.
After Duke Ernst August became King of Hanover in 1837 , the picture moved to the Royal Palace in Hanover in the wake of the monarchs . There it hung from around 1837 over a blue silk wallpaper in the queen's magnificent apartment. In 1848, seven years after the queen's death, the picture appeared in the inventory of Marienburg Castle . It remained in the collection of the House of Hanover until a descendant of King Ernst August, Prince Ernst August von Hanover , born in 1983 , had the painting auctioned by Sotheby’s for 90,750 euros in 2005 . In 2006 the Museum Kunstpalast acquired it in the art trade.
literature
- Bettina Baumgärtel : The double portrait of Princes Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig of Prussia (1794–1863) and Wilhelm zu Solms-Braunfels (1801–1868) in cuirassier uniform, 1830 . In: Bettina Baumgärtel (Hrsg.): The Düsseldorf School of Painting and its international impact 1819–1918 . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86568-702-9 , Volume 2, p. 48 f. (Cat. No. 25).
- Cordula Grewe: Secrets of a Mystery Man: Wilhelm Schadow and the Art of Portraiture in Germany, circa 1830 . In: Nonsite.org , issue 26 (November 11, 2018, PDF ).
Web links
- The double portrait of Princes Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig of Prussia (1794-1863) and Wilhelm zu Solms-Braunfels (1801-1868) in cuirassier uniform , data sheet in the portal deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de
- Wilhelm von Schadow, "Double Portrait of the Princes" (1830) , video from the Museum Kunstpalast on the "Artwork of the Month June 2015" (2:15 min)
Individual evidence
- ^ Johann Josef Scotti : The Düsseldorf painter school, or art academy in the years 1834, 1835 and 1836, and also before and after . Schreiner, Düsseldorf 1837, p. 143 ( digitized version )
- ^ Friedrich von Boetticher : Painters works of the nineteenth century. Contribution to art history . Volume 2 / II, Dresden 1901, p. 526 ( Schadow, Friedrich Wilhem von , oil painting, No. 35 and No. 36)
- ^ Property from the Royal House of Hanover, 5-15 October 2005, lot 1723 , website in the sothebys.com portal , accessed on August 10, 2020