(Paris 1683–1757) King Frederick II of Prussia in a blue infantry uniform with ermine, star, and ribbon of the Order of the Black Eagle, oil on canvas, 80 x 64.5 cm, framed

We are grateful to Helmut Börsch-Supan for his assistance in researching the present painting. He attributes it to Joachim Martin Falbe, Pesne’s best pupil (written communication).

The present composition is a variant of the most celebrated portrait of the king, a great patron of the artist. It was painted immediately after his ascension to the throne in 1740 and shows the monarch as a sensitive aesthete and lord of his Rheinsberg court, far removed from the harsh image of ‘Old Fritz’ captured by Anton Graff at a later period.

Several versions of this portrait are known, and only the prototype was painted by Pesne himself. Falbe, Pesne’s most outstanding student, was entrusted in Pesne’s last will with the completion of the paintings his master had left behind unfinished after his death. Falbe is clearly recognisable as an independent artistic personality through his vigorous handling of the brush, which was unlike the stereotypical workshop replicas, and a painting style that visibly differs from that of Pesne in its greater precision. ‘No other student of Pesne has matched the quality of the present painting in portraiture,’ Börsch-Supan has stated.

We are grateful to Helmut Börsch-Supan for his assistance in researching the present painting. He attributes it to Joachim Martin Falbe, Pesne’s best pupil (written communication).

The present composition is a variant of the most celebrated portrait of the king, great patron of the artist. It was painted immediately after his ascension to the throne in 1740 and shows the monarch as a sensitive aesthete and lord of his Rheinsberg court, far removed from the harsh image of ‘Old Fritz’ captured by Anton Graff at a later period.

Several versions of this portrait are known, and only the prototype was painted by Pesne himself. Falbe, Pesne’s most outstanding student, was entrusted in Pesne’s last will with the completion of the paintings his master had left behind unfinished after his death. Falbe is clearly recognisable as an independent artistic personality through his vigorous handling of the brush, which was unlike the stereotypical workshop replicas, and a painting style that visibly differs from that of Pesne in its greater precision. ‘No other student of Pesne has matched the quality of the present painting in portraiture,’ Börsch-Supan has stated.