(Küstrin 1756-1815 Leipzig)
Portrait of the Prussian statesman Prince Karl August von Hardenberg (1750-1822) in the park of his country estate at Tempelhof near Berlin,
indistinctly signed lower right: D. Caf(e) fec.,
pastel on paper, 90 x 73 cm, framed

Helmut Börsch-Supan confirmed to the consignor that the present painting is an autograph work by Daniel Caffe. 

Karl August, Prince of Hardenberg from 1814, was one of the most prominent Prussian statesmen of the early nineteenth century. He started his career in 1790 as a senior minister to Margrave Karl Alexander of Brandenburg-Ansbach. After the latter had ceded his land to Prussia in 1798, Hardenberg, in his function as Prussian minister, supervised the integration of the former principalities into the Prussian state. In 1804 he was appointed foreign minister of Prussia, but had to resign from his office at Napoleon’s request, resuming his functions the following year. From 1810 onwards, Hardenberg held the office of Prussian state chancellor and was simultaneously in charge of the Home and Foreign Offices and the Treasury. Starting in October 1810, Hardenberg introduced financial reforms. He supported a liberal constitutional government in contrast to Baron vom Stein, who was in favour of a German national state. Prince of Hardenberg successfully represented the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. He is considered one of the leading political reformists of the nineteenth century.