Rosa Huth (1815 – Frankfurt am Main – 1843)
Conrad L’Allemand (1809–80)
Five Portraits of Members of a Frankfurt Family.
Black chalk on paper. Signed and dated “1835” (2) and “1839” (3)
Original frames
Two drawings are pendants depicting the parents. Both are signed and dated “C. L’Allemand 1835”
Dimensions: 25.5 x 20.2 cm (wife) and 26.6 x 21.6 cm (husband)
All three portraits of the children are signed and dated “Rosa Huth 1839”
Dimensions: 26.5 x 21.2 (boy), 26.6 x 21.3 cm (dark-haired girl) and 25.5 x 20 cm (fair-haired girl)
Provenance
Prinzessin Margarete von Isenburg, Schloss Langenselbold
The painter Conrad L’Allemand trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In the years 1830-38 he was active as a popular portraitist of the Frankfurt bourgeoisie. He moved to Hanover in 1838, where he was accepted into court circles and received numerous honours for his work. Through his royal connections he also gained access to the court of Queen Victoria in London.
The portraitist and flower painter Rosa Huth studied under Conrad L’Allemand from 1831–33. Both painters were members of the so-called “Kronberger Malerkolonie”. In the 1830s, Huth’s portraits were highly sought-after in fashionable Frankfurt circles. Her portrait of Großherzogin Marie von Mecklenburg-Strelitz earned her recognition and she acquired the unofficial title of non-resident court painter.
Carl Joseph Begas the Elder (also known as Begasse)
(1794 – 1854)
Double Portrait
Pencil on paper
- 18 x 27,7 cm
Signed “C. Begas f.” in pencil, dated and inscribed in pen and black ink “Paris, 1821”
The inscription reads: “Franz Stockhausen aus Köln Musiker. Paris 5 april 1821 – H. B. Gründler medz doctor aus Breslau Paris 6 april 1821”
Literature: Wolfgang Cortjaens, ‘Hausmusik bei Begas(se) – Eine Künstlerfamilie spielt auf’, in “Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch”, 80/2019, p. 248 (Sonderdruck)
Markus Dinkel
(1762 Eiken – 1832 Bern)
Leda, Althaia and the Swan (after François Boucher)
Watercolour on paper, Bern c.1810
- 62 x 73 cm
Period frame
Literature: A. Klipstein and R. Nicolas, “Die schöne alte Schweiz: Die Kunst der schweizer Kleinmeister”, Zurich and Leipzig 1926, pp. 59-60.
A portrait of Prince Louis Napoléon, son of Queen Hortense, is held at Schloß Arenenberg, Lake Constance
Dinkel exhibited watercolours after Raphael, de la Haye and Boucher at the Kunst und Industrieausstellung in Bern in 1810. He also participated at the Kunst und Industrieausstellung in the years 1818, 1824 and 1830. His work was popular with affluent Grand Tourists who liked to be portrayed by him decked out in traditional Swiss costume. A well-known example is his portrait of Joséphine de Beauharnais executed in 1810 depicting her in traditional Bernese costume.
Michelangelo Maestri (1753 Rome – 1812)
“VENERE FERITA DA CUPIDO”
Rome, c.1800
Gouache on paper
- 38 x 30 cm
Original frame
The Italian artist Michelangelo Maestri specialised in striking compositions inspired by motifs drawn from the antique frescoes discovered in Pompeii and Herculaneum. He also produced very fine work after designs by Raphael and his pupil Giulio Romano. Maestri was a prolific painter whose work was widely appreciated. Wealthy northern European Grand Tour travellers were avid buyers of his paintings, which they regarded as sophisticated mementos of the Tour.
Charles Percier (1764 – 1838)
View into the Loggia of the Villa Giulia (Rome)
Rome, before 1790
Watercolour over pencil
- 23.5 x 16.5 cm
Provenance
Gift of the history painter Lambert Krahe (1712–90) to his son, the celebrated German architect Peter Joseph Krahe (1758–1840). Bearing the collection stamp upper left
On the verso of the former mount inscribed (by Peter Joseph Krahe?) in pen and black ink: “Von meinem seligen Vater” [from my deceased father] and numbered “108”. Recto with a later inscription reading: “Krahe Mappe 1”.
Felix Borchardt (1857 – 1936)
Portait of Baroness von Hausen
Paris, 1906-7
Oil on canvas
- 127 x 107 cm
Provenance
Kunstsalon Emil Richter, Dresden (bearing the stamp on the verso)
Literature: Dagmar Frings and Jörg Kuhn, “Die Borchhardts. Auf den Spuren einer Berliner Familie”, Berlin 2011
Felix Borchardt was born in Berlin in 1857, the son of Max Siegfried Borchardt, a private banker and diplomat. He trained at the Berlin Academy of Arts and later travelled extensively in southern Europe, Turkey and north Africa. He was in Madrid in 1887 and visited the Museo del Prado, where he met a fellow artist – the American Impressionist painter Lydia (Lilla) Cabot Perry (1848-1933) who was on a study trip to Europe. It is likely that their meeting and her exposure to Borchardt’s artistic thinking was to have a formative influence on her own work. The painting “The Black Hat”, executed in 1914, depicting a seated woman in a large black hat, strongly recalls Borchardt’s “Portrait of Baroness von Hausen”.
Borchardt moved to Dresden in 1893, marrying in the same year. His daughter, born in 1894, was the writer Elisabeth Castonier. Borchardt joined the Dresden Secession in 1897. In 1899, the family settled in Paris, where he achieved a major breakthrough and demand for his work flourished. He was an active member of the artistic community and his newly-built property quickly became a popular meeting place for artists, musicians and critics. He was awarded the Légion d´Honneur for his services to French painting in 1913.
Between 1901 and 1910 Borchardt exhibited regularly at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He showed at Galerie Georges Petit in the years 1902 to 1910 and at the Salon d´Automne from 1904 to 1913. One-man shows of his work were staged at Art Nouveau Bing in 1902, Bernheim Jeune in 1903 and Devambes in 1908.
One of his most talked-about paintings was the “Portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm II” which made world headlines from Sydney to Washington and London to Budapest. The painting was shown at the Salon de la Sociéte Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1906 – discreetly guarded by members of the secret service for fear of politically motivated attacks.
Paintings by Borchardt are held in museums in Berlin, Krefeld, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Rome and in numerous private collections.
We are grateful to Dagmar Frings for her valuable assistance.
Woodbury & Page (Batavia)
A Javanese Temple Dancer
Batavia (Java) 1865-70
Albumen print, collodion wet plate process
- 22.9 x 17.2 cm
For the same motif, see KITLV Leiden (NL), University of Leiden, KITLV A750 (old album J 53). [KITLV-Jakarta is a research institute for the study of southeast Asia and the Caribbean]
Relief
Flemish, Antwerp (?), mid-17th century
Carved boxwood, contemporary 17th-century Italian frame
- 17.8 x 14 cm
On the right: Marcus Aurelius Carausius, military commander and self-declared Roman Emperor of Britain in the 3rd century AD, with a crown and sceptre possibly symbolizing the fruitful period of his reign over Britain. The town above representing “Londinium”, symbolized by the lion
On the left: Rome with the Colosseum, Trajan’s column and the Tiber with boats; Olympian Jupiter seated on a pedestal decorated with acanthus, bearing a thunderbolt and with an eagle symbolizing Rome
Turkish Sultan and Sultana
A pair of drawings
Gouache and watercolour
On paper, tiny round holes punched out (illumination view)
- 51 x 51 cm
Framed
South Germany, second half 18th century
Provenance
Schloss Sommerhausen near Würzburg (Turkish room?); Counts of Rechtern-Limpurg-Speckfeld; Schlotterbeck Collection