(Vienna 1804-1871 Munich) "Die Rückkehr des Grafen von Gleichen" (The return of Count Ernst von Gleichen), Study for the painting with the same title in the Bayerischen Staatsgemäldesammlung/Collection Schack, Inv. Nr. 11444 of 1864, watercolor on paper, 27 x 27 cm, mounted, framed, (Hu)

Count von Gleichen went on crusade to the Holy Land and got imprisoned. The daughter of the Sultan rescued him. He married her as second wife with the aid of a special dispensation from the pope. Schwind is telling the return of von Gleichen and recounting the first encounter between the two women. The story can be fully reread with the Grimm brothers and Ludwig Bechstein.

We are grateful to Herrn Dipl. Kulturwirt Ulf Dingerdissen, M. A., from the Georg August Universität Göttingen for the following scientific categorisation on the basis of photographs in January 2016: “I assume that the drawing is an authentic watercolour study by Moritz von Schwind. Numerous pentimenti point to this fact as well as the considerable differences between watercolour and painting. I consider the watercolour a study for an older composition by the hand of the artist. On the one hand Schwind always used to produce his studies in watercolour and on the other hand the Kupferstichkabinett of the Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe preserves a pencil drawing which shows a similar composition with the present drawing. That sheet is considered to have been executed in 1848. It seems that your drawing dates back to this time. It is noticeable that at a very early stage of the formation process Schwind already defined the clothes. Your watercolour is quite exciting in regard of the genesis of Schwind’s painting, which lasted almost 40 years after all. His first ideas for “The Return of the Count von Gleichen” date back to 1826 and he completed the painting only in 1864.

Compare the drawing in the Kupferstichkabinett in Karlsruhe, illustrated in Ulf Dingerdissen, Moritz von Schwind und seine "Rückkehr des Grafen von Gleichen", eine romantische Stellungnahme zur Ehe, VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2008, p. 99 and 137.