(Haina 1722–1789 Kassel)
Portrait of the artist’s daughter Wilhelmine Caroline Amalie (1757–1838) as an Allegory of Painting,
oil on canvas, 54 x 42 cm, framed

We are grateful to Anna-Charlotte Flohr for confirming the attribution and for the identification of the sitter. Her extensive written analysis accompanies the present lot.

Tischbein’s eldest daughter, Wilhelmine Caroline Amalie, was particularly close to the artist. The present, recently rediscovered portrait is a rare, intimate and personal work. The young daughter, who was also an artist in her own right, is depicted with brush and palette in front of an easel and a canvas. She is dressed in an informal shirt which is left casually undone, a shawl and a blueish cloak. Her hair is simply coifed and tied with a ribbon. The whole setting conveys a sense of domestic intimacy. It is unclear whether the painting was intended simply as an artist’s portrait or, in a wider sense, as an allegory of painting. Tischbein had to endure several blows of fate as a young father. He lost both his first wife Marie Sophie Robert in 1759, and his second wife Anne Marie Pernette in 1763. These personal tragedies might have deepened his relationship with his two young daughters.

Wilhelmine Caroline Amalie married David Philipp von Apell (1754–1833), who became director of the Kassel court theatre. She exhibited her work at the Kassel Academy and was celebrated by contemporaries, such as the poet Christoph Martin Wieland, who dedicated a poem to her in praise of a self-portrait she had sent to him (see W. Sucher, ‘Amalie Tischbein, verh. von Apell (1756–1839)’, in: M. Sitt (ed.), Aufgedeckt: Malerinnen im Umfeld Tischbeins und der Kasseler Kunstakademie, Hamburg 2016, p. 27). She had met Wieland in Weimar in 1775 (see C. M. Wieland, ‘An Mademoiselle Amalia Tischbein, als sie mir ihr von ihr selbst gemaltes Bildnis übersandte‘, in: Der Teutsche Merkur, vol. 30, Weimar 1776, p. 10).

Tischbein depicted his favourite daughter on several occasions and apparently included her in some of his larger history paintings. Almost all known depictions of Amalia show her from a similar angle: one painting entitled La silence, at the Fasanerie Palace in Fulda apparently depicts her in a very similar pose, and we find her again in a preparatory drawing in red chalk in Kassel (Hessische Hausstiftung, Eichenzell, inv. no. FAS B 241; and Graphische Sammlung, MHK, inv. no. GS 453 a). Her portrait with a fan, conserved in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel (inv. no. LM 1940/481) is also comparable. In Tischbein’s celebrated family portrait, of which there must have been at least two versions, she is also shown once again in the familiar pose: one version is a small-scale painting conserved in the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hannover (inv. no. PAM 976), whilst a larger variant was recently sold on the German art market (see sale, Lempertz, Cologne, 14 November 2020, lot 2028). The family portrait formerly in Berlin, which was once intended, together with two other paintings of similar size, to form decorative wall panels in Tischbein’s house in the Bellevue in Kassel, shows her in profile, but this time from the left (ex-Berlin, Nationalgalerie, lost in war; see Flohr 1997, cat. G 214). Very closely related to her depiction in the present work is her portrait in another large-scale painting from that series, showing both daughters in highly fashionable Turkish dress.

Tischbein of Kassel was one of the most talented and influential members of a family of artists. His patron, Count Stadion, funded the artist’s five-year stay in Paris, where, from 1743 on, he worked in the studio of Charles van Loo. Together with Johann Christian Fiedler, Christian Bernhard Rode, and Januarius Zick, he was among the first German artists to have been trained in Paris. Between 1748 and 1751, Tischbein travelled across Italy. Having sojourned in Venice for several months, he briefly visited Bologna and Florence and then stayed in Rome for two years. In Venice he became a friend of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. After his return from Italy, Count Stadion recommended the painter to Land­grave William VIII of Hessen-Kassel, who appointed him court painter in April 1753. After the Landgrave’s death, Tischbein continued serving as first court painter under his successor, Frederick II. In 1762, he began teaching drawing and painting at the Collegium Carolinum. In 1776 he was appointed both Professor for painting and Director at the Kassel Academy of Fine Arts. In 1779 he was made an honorary member of the Academia Clementina in Bologna. Tischbein painted important history paintings but is known today primarily for his courtly and highly elegant portraits.

The present painting, clearly inspired by Venetian and French contemporary art and in a sophisticated, soft and almost delicate manner typical of Tischbein’s best works, is an important addition to the artists oeuvre.