Page 86 - Gallery 19C Nazarenes Catalogues

2 11 PROVENANCE LITERATURE
Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow Artist Grewe 1998, vol. II, no. 43.8, 100;
GER M AN, 1788–1862 Thence by descent to his daughter, re-used, see no. 44.4a, 105
Mrs Sophie Hasenclever Gerda
Grewe 2017, no. 64.4, 318, 139, ill.
STUDY OF A BEARDED MAN (APPEARING IN THE FONS VITAE OF 1848 Fein, Heidelberg Sale, Sotheby’s 140 (also used for no. 65).
AS A PILGRIM AND IN THE PURGATORIUM), circa 1839 Munich, 3 December 1996, lot 26.
oil on canvas Sale, Van Ham Auktionshaus,
18 ¹/₂ by 15 in. (48 by 38 cm) Cologne, 30 June 2001, lot 1643
Sale, Auktionshaus Neumeister,
Munich, 20 March 2002, lot 779
Sale, Auktionshaus Leo Spik,
Berlin, 16 June 2005, lot 216
Sale, Dorotheum, Vienna,
13 March 2013, lot 231
Private Collection, California
(acquired at the above sale)

In 1839, thirteen years after he had assumed the directorship of the halls and once more designed by Friedrich August Stüler (1800–1865). While the portrait of the bearded man might simply confirm Schadow’s Cat. 11a Wilhelm Schadow, Fons Vitae, 1848, pen in gray-brown,
Düsseldorf academy, Wilhelm Schadow (1788–1862) embarked on the When Schadow received the commission, the building was still under overall working method, the existence of a second, almost identical 53,7 × 41,3 cm, Lübeck, Museum Behnhaus Drägerhaus
third and last sojourn to his beloved Italy. By this time, the golden age construction (1841–1855). In step with the commission’s prestige, Schadow study of the same bearded man but from a different hand is noteworthy
of what the poet Karl Leberecht Immermann (1796–1840) had once took pains with the project’s preparation (Cat. 11a). Once he had worked (Cat. 11d). The two versions draw attention to an important practice Cat. 11b Wilhelm Schadow, A Pilgrim Kneeling at the Fountain of Life,
called Düsseldorf's Beginnings had come to an end. The era’s political unrest, out the basic composition, he produced a series of meticulous studies in Düsseldorf: the joint study of models and subsumption of individual detail from the Fons Vitae, 1848, oil on canvas,
confessional conflicts and economic crisis had not stopped before the gates for the bodies, draperies, and elaborate costumes. Additionally, he was surface treatment under a homogeneous school-style. In 1832, the artists 452 × 335 cm, SPSG, Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam
of the academy, and by mid-century, the international popularity of the interested in the figures’ pantomimic eloquence, drawing many in the nude, demonstrated their exceptional aesthetic, technical and ideological unity Cat. 11c Wilhelm Schadow, Figure of a Prince, detail from the
now famous Düsseldorf School of Painting had turned into a curse. The as well as their psychological expressivity. To that end Schadow executed in a group portrait in which each had portrayed the other but aimed at Purgatorium, 1848–1852, oil on canvas, 241.5 × 303, Museum
more the academy expanded, the harder the struggle to secure resources, numerous portraits in pencil and, as in the case of the bearded man, in oil. a perfect visual oneness of hands (Cat. 11e). The result stunned their Kunstpalast (on permanent loan from the State of North
market share or even a space in the art program, and most blamed Paying close attention to the texture of his model’s facial hair and rich head contemporaries who nicknamed the painting programmatically The Schadow Rhine-Westphalia / Administration of Justice, Düsseldorf
Schadow. The director himself was extremely concerned and noticed that of graying locks, which bounce energetically off the shoulder, Schadow Circle. Of course, one inevitable upshot of this practice was a notable
even his most famous students had hardly any sufficient commissions. indulged in a much looser, impasto brushwork than in the finely worked difficulty to distinguish hands, and this applies to the two oil sketches at Cat. 11d Wilhelm Schadow (?), Study of a Bearded Man,
Susceptible to depression from a young age onward, Schadow did not surfaces of his finished paintings. At the same time, the reduced palette of hand as well. For a long time, the head now in the Museum Kunstpalast oil on canvas, 42.2 × 33.5 cm, Museum Kunstpalast
take the increasing attacks on his leadership and intensifying critique of grays and browns catered to his preoccupation with the allure of age and in Düsseldorf was attributed to Schadow; however, when the study (Collection of the Düsseldorf Art Academy), Düsseldorf
his artistic guidance lightly. His capacity to work and level of productivity experience both firmly inscribed in the man’s tanned skin and intense, presented here surfaced on the art market in the 1990s this attribution Cat. 11e Julius Hübner d. Ä. in cooperation with Wilhelm Schadow,
declined, a situation worsened by the onset of serious health problems. somewhat strained look. The complexity of that expression, which hovers needed to be revised in favor of attributing this version to Schadow. Carl Ferdinand Sohn, Eduard Bendemann and Theodor Hildebrandt.
When Schadow returned from Italy in 1840, the mood in Düsseldorf’s art between amazement and anxiety, pleading and disbelief, underscores the The Bendemann Family and Friends (also known as The Schadow
scene had changed, and not for the better. But Schadow did not give up. important role of physiognomic realism and psychological penetration for Circle), 1832, oil on canvas, 108 × 175 cm, Kunstmuseen Krefeld
Schadow’s approach to history painting. The painter was clearly satisfied
On the contrary, in this moment of crisis, he embarked on some of his most with his efforts, so satisfied indeed that he immediately reused the study
ambitious projects and he could count on his most prominent patrons. in his next major project, the triptych Purgatorium, Paradise, Hell (1848–1852). ¹ Cited in Grewe 2017, 136.magdalena-am-leichnam-christi
Gleefully, he noted in January 1845 that the king did not head any negative While the bearded man thus first joined the pilgrims in the 1848 Fons
judgment about his abilities and “has ordered a large picture from me for Vitae, kneeling in the foreground on the left (Cat. 11b), he returned only
the Berlin Museum.” The monumental painting, an allegorical Fons Vitae shortly afterwards as a stately prince in the Purgatorium (Cat. 11c).
1
(fountain of life) and the largest single canvas Schadow ever produced, was
intended for the Neue Museum, the latest of the capital’s new exhibition

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