German Royalty – The Winterhalter Catalogue

Portrait of Edward Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1823-1902) (copy) @ Gorringes [Part 4]

Portrait of Edward Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1823-1902) (copy) @ Gorringes [Part 4]

[Continued from Part 3]

As it has become customary in my blog entries, at this point in time I usually furnish the information about the sitter’s descendants.

The sitter, HSH Wilhelm August Eduard Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, Herzog von Sachsen (Bushy Park, London 11.10.1823-London 16.11.1902), married on 27.11.1851, Lady Augusta Catherine Gordon-Lennox (Goodwood House, Sussex 14.01.1827-London 3.04.1904).

His wife, daughter of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 5^th Duke of Richmond and Lennox (1790-1860), and Lady Caroline Paget (1796-1874, daughter of the 1^st Marquess of Anglesey), was not considered of equal birth under the German law. The marriage was deemed to have been morganatic, and the bride received a courtesy title of Gräfin von Dornburg from her future father-in-law. However, in Britain, at least since 1886, both husband and wife were consistently referred to as Their Serene Highnesses Prince and Princess Edward of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

The couple had no children.

It is worthwhile pointing out that Lawrences featured in the same auction in October 2006, a portrait of Lady Augusta Catherine Gordon-Lennox, Princess Edward of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (lot 1556).

A comparison with the sitter’s photographs which were taken around this time irrefutably proves the identity of the sitter. While this is a beautifully executed portrait, which also bears all the quintessential hallmarks of the mid-nineteenth-century portraiture (the portrait is allegedly dated as having been painted in 1856), unfortunately, it is impossible to attribute it to Winterhalter. Not only it differs stylistically from Winterhalter’s oeuvre, it is signed by another artist. Albeit the signature is illegible, according to the catalogue, the unknown artist’s initials T and H can be clearly made out.

Portrait of Edward Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1823-1902) (copy) @ Gorringes [Part 3]

Portrait of Edward Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1823-1902) (copy) @ Gorringes [Part 3]

[Continued from Part 2]

As it has become customary with my blog entries, here is an abbreviated ancestry of the sitter, limited to the first three generations:

Wilhelm August Eduard Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (Bushy-Park 11.10.1823-London 16.11.1902)
Carl Bernhard Fürst von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (Weimar 30.05.1792-Liebenstein 31.07.1862), m.Meiningen 30.05.1816
Ida Prinzessin von Sachsen-Meiningen (Meiningen 25.06.1794-Weimar 4.04.1852, sister of Bernhard II von SM)
Karl-August Großerzog von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (Weimar 3.09.1757-Graditz 14.06.1828), m.Karlsruhe 3.10.1775
Luise Auguste Landgräfin von Hessen-Darmstadt (Berlin 30.01.1757-Weimar 14.02.1830)
Georg I Friedrich Karl Herzog von Sachsen-Meiningen (Frankfurt 4.02.1761-Meiningen 24.12.1803), m. Langenburg 27.11.1782
Luise Eleonore Prinzessin von Hohenlohe-Langenburg (Langenburg 11.08.1763-Meiningen 30.04.1837)
Ernst August II Konstantin Herzog von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (Weimar 2.06.1737-Weimar 28.05.1758), m. Braunschweig 16.03.1756
Anna Amalie Herzogin von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (Wolfenbüttel 24.10.1739-Weimar 10.04.1807)
Ludwig IX Landgraf von Hessen-Darmstadt (Darmstadt 15.12.1719-Pirmasens 6.04.1790), m.1st Zweibrücken 12.08.1741
Karoline Henriette Christine Pfalzgräfin von Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld (Strassburg 9.03.1721-Darmstadt 30.03.1774)
Anton Ulrich Herzog von Sachsen-Meiningen (Meiningen 22.10.1687-Frankfurt 27.01.1763), m.2^nd Homburg vor der Hohe 26.09.1750
Charlotte Amalia Prinzessin von Hessen-Philippsthal (Philippsthal 11.08.1730-Meiningen 7.09.1801)
Christian Albrecht Ludwig Furst zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (Langenburg 27.03.1726-Lidwigsruhe 4.07.1789), m. Gedern 13.04.1761
Karoline Prinzessin zu Stolberg-Gedern (Gedern 27.06.1732-Langenburg 28.05.1796)

To be continued … [see part 4].

Portrait of Edward Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1823-1902) (copy) @ Gorringes [Part 2]

Portrait of Edward Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1823-1902) (copy) @ Gorringes [Part 2]

[Continued from Part 1]

Winterhalter depicts Prince Edward in a head-and-shoulders format, in half-turn to the right, and facing the viewer. The prince is shown attired very modestly in the portrait, wearing an elaborately tied black silk cravat over a starched white shirt and a simple jacket. However, the simplicity of his garments is very typical of the mid-nineteenth-century style of the upper classes. As I explore in my forthcoming thesis on Winterhalter, following the upheavals of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, scions of royal and aristocratic dynasties broadly adopted sensible, sober, and sombre garments of the middle classes to emphasise their subordination to the services of the country, rather the incident of birth and hereditary privileges.

Prince Edward’s aunt, Queen Adelaide, whose own children died in infancy, lavished all her motherly attention on her nieces and nephews on both sides of the channel. Prince Edward, son of Queen Adelaide’s sister, Ida von Sachsen-Meiningen, Fürstin von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, was among them. He was born, and spent much of his childhood and youth, in England, becoming a close friend of the Prince of Wales (future Edward VII). In fact, Winterhalter’s original portrait, which is presently in the British Royal Collection, was bequeathed to Edward VII upon the sitter’s death. After becoming a naturalised British citizen in 1841, Prince Edward began to pursue career in the military, and fought valiantly during the Crimean War, during which he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. From 1855, he became ADC to Queen Victoria. Prince Edward retired from active service in 1890 with the rank of Commander-in-Chief.

To be continued … [see part 3].

Portrait of Edward Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1823-1902) (copy) @ Gorringes [Part 1]

Portrait of Edward Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1823-1902) (copy) @ Gorringes [Part 1]

As per the first post about Portrait of Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (1776-1857), Gorringes also featured in their slightly earlier auction, in December 2005, a painting, which was described in the catalogue as “Victorian School, Portrait of a Gentleman” (illustrated above).

The painting is, in fact, a replica or a copy of Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s Portrait of Edward Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1823-1902), the original of which, signed and dated 1849, is in the Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, possibly at Buckingham Palace.

Once again, a comment has to be made about the high quality of the portrait at Gorringes’, at least judging from the photograph on their website. While it is also quite possibly, just like in the case of the Portrait of Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (1776-1857), an excellent copy by William Corden, a closer examination, as well as a thorough provenance research, might suggest this work is a replica by the artist.

The same portrait – or at the very least a very similar copy or a version – appeared less than a year later at another British auction house, Lawrences (October 2006, lot 1555). This time, however, the portrait was fully catalogued, correctly identifying both the artist and the sitter.

According to the catalogue entry, the portrait was inscribed with details on reverse; and it was also accompanied with a lithograph of the painting by R.J. Lane, which once again would have made identification much easier.

It only goes to show that it is certainly impossible to know every painting by every artist, and that, at times, auction house specialists are at the mercy of the vendors.

To be continued … [see part 2].

[PS]: Neither of the auction houses provided any provenance details, so it is indeed rather difficult to know whether we are talking about the same work or two different portraits, which just happen to pop up on the British art market within a year of each other.