(Vienna 1724–1787 Munich)
A state portrait of Karl Theodor, Elector of the Palatinate and Bavaria (1724–1799), wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, the order of St. George and the order of St. Hubert,
oil on canvas, 130.5 x 97 cm, framed

We are grateful to Helmut Börsch-Supan for suggesting the attribution. His written certificate accompanies the present lot.

This impressive portrait of the Bavarian Elector Karl Theodor was painted by Heinrich Carl Brandt. Two other authograph versions are known: Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung (oil on canvas,
103 x 81 cm, inv. no. 10384) and a small oval portrait depicted hanging on the wall in a group portrait of the elector’s mistress Josepha Gräfin von Heydeck and her legitimized children (oil on canvas, 101.8 125 cm, Reiss-Engelhorn Museum, Mannheim).

Heinrich Carl Brandt was born in 1724 in Vienna. He was a son of the landscape painter Christian Hilfgott Brand. He studied under Jacob von Schuppen at the Vienna academy 1739-1745; from 1745-47 he was apprenticed to the court portraitist Martin van Meytens the Younger. Travelling to Paris during a stay in Frankfurt, he painted Count Johann Carl Philipp von Cobenzl, who recommended him to the elector of Mainz, Johann Friedrich Carl von Ostein. In 1749 Ostein appointed Brandt as his court painter. From 1750 to 1752 the artist worked in Paris.

In 1765 his appointment as court painter in Mannheim followed, and in 1770 he became a professor and secretary of the elector Karl Theodor. In the early-1780s the artist settled in Munich. Together with Johann Georg Ziesenis, Brandt is considered the most important portrait painter in Southern Germany in the late 18th century. The present painting is a characteristic work by the artist in which he achieved a human representation of the jovial monarch, who considered himself a prince of peace, rather than a warrior.