(Haina 1722–1789 Kassel)
Portrait of William VIII, Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel (1682–1760),
oil on canvas, 141 x 112 cm, framed

We are grateful to Anna-Charlotte Flohr for confirming the authenticity of the present painting and for her help in compiling this catalogue entry. A written certificate accompanies the present painting.

This rediscovered painting is a significant addition to Tischbein’s oeuvre. The painting is offered in an elaborate and most probably original Rococo frame, which is Attributed to Johann August Nahl the Elder (1710–1781).

The landgrave’s portrait can be dated to the latter half of the 1750s, owing to the painterly verve and vivid colours in the present work. These stylistic features had become characteristic after the artist’s return from France and Italy particularly during the first decades of his activity as a court painter to the landgraves of Hessen-Kassel. With the impressions gained during his training abroad, the artist created numerous portraits at a time when the art of portraiture was at its peak in Europe; in their use of color, composition, attention to detail, and confident brushwork, Tischbein’s works were equal to those by his French and Italian fellow painters.

The portrait of Landgrave William VIII is a characteristic example of the state, or sovereign’s portrait in the age of the Baroque and Rococo. This type had an important symbolic function in the pictorial representation of absolute rulers. For his official portraits, Tischbein chose depictions of full-length or half-length figures, as well as, most frequently, three-quarter-length figures, the so-called knee-length portrait. The present portrait is a variant of the first important half-length portrait Tischbein had painted of his sovereign. He owed his appointment as court painter in 1753 to the high degree of virtuosity of said portrait (see Anna Charlotte Flohr, Johann Heinrich Tischbein d. Ä. als Porträtmaler mit einem kritischen Werkverzeichnis, Munich 1997, p. 67 and WVZ G1, ill.). In terms of composition, posture, and use of accessories, it corresponds (except for minor deviations) to an almost identical version dating from around the same period, namely 1755, which is now in a German private collection (see Flohr 1997, WVZ G2). It was common practice to make several versions of one prototype, which monarchs then presented to affiliated or allied families or deserving officers as donations. Unlike portrait G2, the helmet placed down on the left-hand side lacks the red plume of feathers, and the background scenery betrays alterations: the horse and rider have been arranged differently in the present composition.

The unmistakable quality of the picture leaves no doubt that it was painted by Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder. It is highly attractive in its rich chromatic nuances and atmospheric rendering of the bustling battle scene in the background, the landgrave’s softly modelled, true-to-life facial features, the confident composition, as well as the technical refinement in the depiction of fabrics and materials, which is entirely typical of Tischbein – such as the metallically glimmering armour, the delicate, fluffy laces, soft ermine, and skilfully rendered texture of the sash.

Landgrave William VIII of Hesse-Kassel (1682–1760) was the sixth son of Landgrave Carl of Hesse-Kassel (1654–1730) from the latter’s marriage to Maria Amalia (1653–1711), daughter of Duke Jakob Kettler of Kurland. His elder brother Frederick having been crowned king of Sweden in 1720 and Landgrave Carl having died in 1730, William took over the administration of the landgraviate as governor on behalf of his brother. After his death, William followed him officially as ruling landgrave in 1751. Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder, having returned from formative years in Paris, Rome, and Venice in 1749, met William VIII in 1752 during the landgrave’s stay at the health resort of Schlangenbad near Mainz and in 1753 was called to Kassel and appointed court painter in 1753. The ‘artistic trinity’ of the painter Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder, the sculptor Johann August Nahl the Elder, and the architect Simon du Ry, under the auspices of the landgrave (and subsequently under that of his son, Frederick II of Hessen-Kassel), decisively determined artistic life in the town of the landgraves’ residence. Starting in 1753, a Rococo summer residence was built at Wilhelmsthal near Calden outside Kassel at the initiative of the art-minded landgrave. Today one can still see there the so-called ‘Galleries of Beauties and Ancestors’ by Tischbein’s hand. After the death of his father, Landgrave Carl, in 1730, William VIII initially only acted as governor of Hesse-Kassel for his elder brother Frederick, who had been King of Sweden since 1720 while giving his brother in Kassel plenty of rope. Only after Frederick’s death in 1751 did William follow him as landgrave officially in power. William VIII’s late reign was marked by the Seven Years’ War, in which the landgrave had been a player on several teams. Aside from politics, William devoted himself to his collection of paintings, which laid the foundation for today’s Gemäldegalerie in Kassel.