Family portrait (Kremser Schmidt)
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| Family portrait |
|---|
| Martin Johann Schmidt , 1790 |
| Oil on zinc sheet |
| 72.4 x 86.4 cm |
| Upper Belvedere, Vienna (loan) |
The family portrait of Martin Johann Schmidt is considered a key work by this Austrian baroque painter .
description
At the age of 72, the "Kremser Schmidt" portrayed himself, surrounded by his closest family members. The painter himself is sitting in the middle of a large room, apparently in the process of working on a blank canvas. He is holding a paintbrush in his right hand, but, gesturing with his left, turns back to his sons Joseph Johann Nepomuk and Johann Martin Karl.
These occupy the right side of the picture; one in a blue suit is sitting cross-legged on a low, upholstered chair in the foreground, holding a sketch pad in his right hand and looking out of the picture at the viewer, the other in a red suit stands a little further back in the room in front of a painting , which shows four siblings who died young from the leaves . He too seems to be holding a painting instrument, albeit in his left hand, which may include the vessels on a table in the background on the right. His gaze is turned to the father. There are several large-format drawings on the floor between the two younger men and their father, behind Martin Johann Schmidt there is a painting showing Venus in the forge on Vulkan .
In this picture in the picture , Venus, concealed with a flower garland, stands in counter post next to her seated husband, who turns his back on the viewer of the picture and looks up at Venus. Cupid or a putto hovers over the scene , evidence of Vulkan's blacksmithing skills lie on the ground, including a horseshoe .
With a painting on the same subject, Schmidt was accepted into the Vienna Academy in 1768 .
On the left edge of the picture, facing the center of the room, Martin Johann Schmidt's wife Elisabeth and his ugly daughter Viktoria are sitting on two chairs in front of a classicist stove, as it was modern at the time of the artist. Viktoria wears a tall, dark hat, Elisabeth wears a blue ribbon with a bow over her forehead. Beside them, the two ladies have upholstered furniture, half hidden under a blanket, on which two cats are playing. While Schmidt's two sons are dressed in rather bright colors, the wife and daughter wear rather matte pastel colors. Elisabeth is dressed in blue-gray, Viktoria in old pink. Her hat is two-tone; the brim is straw-colored with a black border, the rest is black.
The Kremser Schmidt himself, who has shown himself to be the focus of the family, wears lemon-colored shoes with white stockings, dark blue knee breeches and a light brown skirt or dressing gown. The collar of his white shirt leaves his neck free. The whole family wears powdered baroque curly hairstyles, which the men hold together with black neck bows and probably also hair bags .
The room with its walls disappearing in the twilight and a large grid stone or tiled floor belongs to Schmidt's house in Stein an der Donau , which today belongs to the city of Krems . Schmidt acquired this house around 1755/56. By this time he had already received many important commissions from monasteries in Lower Austria. Schmidt was enterprising; In addition to his original pictures, he also sold print reproductions of the paintings.
Presumably the picture was created to furnish Schmidt's house. He was heavily involved in the social and political life of the city through many offices and honorary positions. The family portrait points to his roots in the bourgeois world: the playing cats as well as the stove and the assembled family circle belong to a domestic idyll that was evidently in line with the painter's lifestyle. What is new compared to this image program of the happily assembled family, however, in Schmidt's family portrait is the self-confident positioning of oneself as an artist, combined with the reference to his career. The picture with Venus and Vulcan is also an allusion to Schmidt's name and the family crest, which he himself chose and which showed a blacksmith.
In a description that the Austrian Federal Monuments Office had published for this picture, it says among other things: “In his“ family portrait ”Schmidt connects the past in the form of a retrospective summary of his success in life with the present, but also the future of his artistic and personal existence. The mythological scene with Venus and Vulcano refers to professional high points, the portrait of the firstborn four children who died young from the leaves to past private pain. The painter can confidently present himself as a still active and sought-after artist, the portrayal of the elegantly dressed family in a splendid room in their home testifies to prosperity and domestic happiness. But Schmidt, who was already at the beginning of his eighth decade, is still looking to the future: He proudly refers to the two sons he taught, while the blank canvas next to him serves as a reference to his own artistic projects. "
In fact, when the Kremser Schmidt was creating this family portrait, there was still about a decade of fruitful work ahead of him.
Other versions
Schmidt apparently created several versions of his family portrait. In addition to the large version, which is signed and dated, there is a smaller version that only reproduces part of this representative family picture. It comes from the Museum of Sternberk Castle in Bohemia and is now in the Olomouc Krajské vlastvédné muzeum. The Szépművészeti Múzeum in Budapest also owns a 48 by 64 cm version that is painted with oil on canvas. It is considered a sketch for the larger family portrait that was executed. One of the pictures must initially have remained in Schmidt's possession as an ornament of his house, as can be seen from an inventory of his home.
Provenance and whereabouts of the picture
In 1938 the city of Krems received two pictures by Johann Martin Schmidt from the "Aryanization" of the Richard Neumanns collection , about which they expressed their delight in a letter of thanks - combined with the request not to be ignored in future collections of art treasures from Jewish property. At that time they were particularly interested in Schmidt's family portrait and asked to “make it possible for the well-known family portrait of MJ Schmidt from the possession of the sugar bond to come here.” The sugar bond meant Oscar Bondy ; the picture was the large, signed version on copper. In fact, Bondy, who was in Czechoslovakia at the time of the "Anschluss" and initially fled to Switzerland, was expropriated. He was able to emigrate to the USA and died a few years later in exile in New York .
The family portrait Schmidt was later restituted to Bondy's widow and then sold to an Austrian noble family. In 2009 it was auctioned and came to a price of 268,000 euros. Schmidt's family portrait is now privately owned by the Goess-Saurau-Melnhof families in Frohnleiten and is on loan at the Upper Belvedere in Vienna.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The "Kremser Schmidt". Artist, citizen and family man , on: bda.at ( Memento of the original from June 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ References to the other two versions on wga.hu
- ↑ It was not until 2007 that these pictures were returned to Neumann's heirs, cf. this press release .
- ↑ a b “Highly delighted” on Nazi-looted art , on: derstandard.at, March 31, 2008
- ↑ For Oscar Bondy's biography see gerdvonseggern.lima-city.de
- ↑ Resolution on parts of Bondy's collection ( Memento of the original of December 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Nicole Scheyerer, Red Hair Band , on: faz.net, October 13, 2009
- ↑ Eva Komarek, baroque painter Kremser Schmidt shows upward potential , on :wirtschaftsblatt.at, February 5, 2010 ( Memento from December 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Owner information on austria-forum.org
