royal portraits – The Winterhalter Catalogue

Sales Results: Portrait of Princess Charlotte of Belgium

Dear Friends,

Apologies for a prolonged silence – I’ve been travelling a bit, visiting some truly amazing places, public museums, royal palaces, private collections, auction houses, and art galleries in search of works by Winterhalter brothers. I will share some of my findings in the subsequent blogs.

But, firstly, an update on a previous blog.

On 9 and 10 January 2014 I posted an entry about Portrait of Princess Charlotte of Belgium, which was coming up for sale at Sotheby’s New York – see https://franzxaverwinterhalter.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/portrait-of-princess-charlotte-of-belgium-1840-1927-c-1845-46-cat-no-311b-sothebys-new-york-part-1/ and https://franzxaverwinterhalter.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/portrait-of-princess-charlotte-of-belgium-1840-1927-c-1845-46-cat-no-311b-sothebys-new-york-part-2/

I am truly thrilled to share with you that this beautiful painting by Franz Xaver Winterhalter and His Studio, which was estimated at USD $ 60,000-80,000, was sold for USD $ 75,000.

The sales result for this painting represents to me a further example of the general increase in value of works by Franz Xaver Winterhalter at auction (as opposed to gallery / retail market which has a different and / or independent price structure).

Two more portraits by the Winterhalter brothers (that I am aware of) are about to be sold in France, so it will be interesting to see whether the example set by the New York sale will be repeated in Europe. More details to follow.

http://www.sothebys.com/

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 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.

Portrait of Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (1776-1857) (copy) @ Gorringes [Part 3]

Portrait of Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (1776-1857) (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:

HRH Mary, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, etc (1776-1857)
HM George III William Frederick, King of Great Britain cr 1760 (Norfolk House 4.06.1738-Windsor Castle 29.01.1820), m. St James’s Palace 8.09.1761
HSH Sophie Charlotte Herzogin von Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Mirow 19.05.1744-Kew Palace 17.11.1818)
HRH Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales (Hannover 20.01.1707-Leicester House 20.03.1751), m. St James’s Palace 8.05.1736
HSH Augusta Prinzessin von Sachsen-Gotha (Gotha 30.11.1719-Carlton House 8.02.1772)
HSH Karl I Ludwig Friedrich, Herzog von Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Strelitz 23.02.1708-Mirow 5.06.1752), m. Eisenfeld 5.02.1735
HSH Elisabeth Albertine Prinzessin von Sachsen-Hildburghausen (Hildburghausen 3.08.1713-Neustreiltz 29.06.1761)
HM George II Augustus, King of Great Britain cr 1727 (Hannover 30.10.1683-Kensington Palace 25.10.1760), m. Hannover 22.08.1705
HSH Karoline Markgrafin von Brandenburg-Ansbach (Ansbach 1.03.1683-St James’s Palace 20.11.1737)
HSH Friedrich II Herzog von Sachsen-Gotha (Gotha 28.07.1676-Altenburg 23.03.1732), m. Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha 7.06.1696
HSH Magdalene Auguste Prinzessin von Anhalt-Zerbst (Zerbst 13.10.1679-Altenburg 11.10.1740)
HSH Adolf Friedrich II Herzog von Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Grabow 19.10.1658-12.05.1708), m.3^rd Strelitz 10.06.1705
HH Christiane Emilie Antonie Prinzessin von Schwarburg-Sonderhausen (March 1681-Mirow 1.11.1715)
HSH Ernst Friedrich I Herzog von Sachsen-Hildburghausen (Gotha 21.08.1681-Hildburghausen 9.03.1724), m. Erbach 4.02.1704
HH Sofie Albertine Grafin von Erbach-Erbach (Erbach 30.07.1683-Eisenfeld 4.09.1742)

HRH Mary, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, etc (1776-1857), married in 1816 her cousin, HRH William Frederick, 2^nd Duke of Gloucester & Edinburgh, Earl of Connaught (1776-1834).

The couple had no children.

Portrait of Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (1776-1857) (copy) @ Gorringes [Part 2]

Portrait of Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (1776-1857) (copy) @ Gorringes [Part 2]

[Continued from Part 1]

The sitter was the fourth daughter and eleventh child of King George III and Queen Charlotte of Great Britain. She was considered to be the most beautiful of the six daughters, but similarly to her sisters, Mary’s prospects of connubial bliss were overshadowed by the illness of her father, domineering spirit of her mother, historical events, and the political instability in Europe. Eventually, in 1816, she married her cousin William, Duke of Gloucester. Although the marriage would have been vetoed by her father who disapproved marriages between cousins in general, and of the Gloucester family in particular, the union took place during George III’s illness and was only made possible with the mediation of the Prince Regent.

The Duchess of Gloucester commissioned Winterhalter to paint her portrait as a birthday present to her niece, Queen Victoria, with whom she was very close. When the Duchess died in 1857, at the age of 81, having outlived all her brothers and sisters, Queen Victoria wrote: “With her is gone the last link, which connected us with a bygone generation. She was an authority on everything, a bright example of loyalty, devotion and duty, the kindest and best of mistresses, and friends. She had become like a grandmother to us all, from her age, and from her being the last of the family.”

To be continued … [see part 3].

Portrait of Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (1776-1857) (copy) @ Gorringes (cat no 389) [Part 1]

Portrait of Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (1776-1857) (copy) @ Gorringes [Part 1]

Replicas and copies of Winterhalter’s works are becoming increasingly valuable on the art market. However, they can still slip by unnoticed and undetected with a relative ease at art auctions.

For example, the auction house Gorringes, of Lewes, East Sussex, featured in one of their auctions in April 2006 a painting which they described as “Victorian School, Portrait of an Old Lady” (illustrated above).

The painting is, in fact, an exceptionally fine copy of Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s Portrait of Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (1776-1857), the original of which, signed and dated as painted in 1850, is in the collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, possibly at Buckingham Palace.

The portrait shows Queen Victoria’s seventy-four year old aunt at head-and-shoulders, in half-turn to the left, turning her head towards the viewer. Her hair is parted in the middle and plaited around the ears in an early Victorian style. It is covered by a blue and white lace headdress, which is fastened under her chin, and descends onto her shoulders. The Duchess is wearing a dark-brown day dress, possibly of satin or silk, with ruches and embroideries, and with a white collar edged with lace. Her decorations comprise of a single golden brooch just visible under the lace; and a heavy pendant, possibly a large miniature or a watch, suspended from a heavy gold chain.

The portrait clearly shows Winterhalter’s versatility in depicting sitters of all ages. The artist has been frequently accused of beautifying and idealising his sitters, but as this portrait shows, he does not shy away from the veristic though sympathetic depiction of the venerable old age.

I have only seen a photograph of the work at Gorringes online, and not in high resolution. It is most likely a copy by William Corden, a professionally trained painter of extraordinary talent, who, together with his son William was employed by Queen Victoria almost exclusively as a copyist. However, the exceptionally high quality of the portrait, that comes forth even through this low resolution, makes me wonder whether this could be indeed Winterhalter’s own replica.

To be continued … [see part 2].

Portrait of Princess Charlotte of Belgium (1840-1927), c.1845-46 (cat no 311b) @ Sotheby’s New York [Part 4]

Portrait of Princess Charlotte of Belgium (1840-1927), c.1845-46 (cat no 311b) @ Sotheby’s New York [Part 4]

As it has become customary with my blog entries, here is a note regarding the sitter’s descendants:

HRH Marie Charlotte Amélie Auguste Victoire Clémentine Léopoldine, Princess of Belgium (Château de Laeken, near Brussels 7.06.1840-Château de Bouchout, Belgium 19.01.1927), m. 27.07.1857 HI & RH Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, Archduke of Austria, Palatine of Hungary, cr. 1864 HIM Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico (Vienna 6.07.1832-excecuted Queretaro, Mexico 19.06.1867)

All historians and biographers agree that Charlotte and Maximilian had no children. To the best of my knowledge, the allegations that Charlotte had an affair with the Belgian General, Baron Alfred Louis Adolphe Graves van der Smissen (1823-1895), and gave birth to Maxime Weygand (1867-1965), the future French General and Military Commander [see http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxime_Weygand], are still contested.

Portrait of Princess Charlotte of Belgium (1840-1927), c.1845-46 (cat no 311b) @ Sotheby’s New York [Part 3]

Portrait of Princess Charlotte of Belgium (1840-1927), c.1845-46 (cat no 311b) @ Sotheby’s New York [Part 3]

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

Marie Charlotte Amélie Auguste Victoire Clémentine Léopoldine, Princess of Belgium (Château de Laeken, near Brussels 7.06.1840-Château de Bouchout, Belgium 19.01.1927)
Leopold Georg Christian Friedrich Prinz von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld, cr. 1831 Leopold I, King of the Belgians (1790-1865), m.2^nd 1832
Princesse Louise-Marie Thérèse Charlotte Isabelle d’Orléans, Mlle de Chartres (1812-1850)
Franz Friedrich Anton Herzog von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld (1750- 1806), m.2^nd 1777
Auguste Karolina Sophia Gräfin Reuss zu Ebersdorf (1757-1831)
Louis-Philippe d’Orléans, Duc de Valois, Duc de Chartres, Duc d’Orléans, cr. 1830 Louis-Philippe, King of the French (1773- 1850), m.1809
Donna Maria Amelia Teresa di Borbone, Principessa delle Due Sicilie (1782-1866)
Ernst Friedrich Herzog von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld (1724- 1800), m.1749
Sofie Antonie Herzogin von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1724-1802, aunt to Ivan IV of Russia)
Heinrich XXIV Graf Reuss zu Lobenstein von Ebersdorf (1724-1779), m.1754
Karoline Ernestine Gräfin zu Erbach-Schonberg (1727-1796)
Louis Philippe Joseph, Duc d’Orléans, dit Philippe Egalité (1747-guillotined Paris 6.11.1793), m.1769
Mlle Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre (1753-1821)
Ferdinando I Antonio Pasquale Giovanni Nepomuceno Serafino Gennaro Benedetto di Borbone, King of Two Sicilies (1751-1825), m.1^st 1768
Maria Carolina Louise Josepha Johanna Antonia, Archduchess of Austria, Princess Palatine of Hungary (1752-1814, sister of Queen Marie-Antoinette)

To be continued…

Portrait of Princess Charlotte of Belgium (1840-1927), c.1845-46 (cat no 311b) @ Sotheby’s New York [Part 2]

Portrait of Princess Charlotte of Belgium (1840-1927), c.1845-46 (cat no 311b) @ Sotheby’s New York [Part 2]

The tragic story of Princess Charlotte of Belgium is only too well known to relate within these pages, but it would suffice to say that she was the only daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians, and his second wife, Princess Louise-Marie d’Orléans, the eldest daughter of Louis-Philippe, King of the French. She was a beautiful and intelligent child, especially favoured by her cousin, Queen Victoria of England. After the premature death of her mother in 1850, Charlotte’s education and upbringing was supervised by her grandmother, Marie-Amélie, Queen of the French, now living in exile in England.

Leopold I realised his political and dynastic ambitions by arranging in 1857 Charlotte’s marriage to Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, a brother of the Emperor Franz-Joseph. The same year Maximilian was appointed Viceroy of Lombardy and Venetia, then under the Austrian control, and Charlotte did much social, welfare, and charitable work to alleviate the anti-Austrian sentiment of the local populace.

In 1864 the political and diplomatic manoeuvring of Napoléon III brought Maximilian the crown of Mexico. Charlotte dutifully followed her husband to the New World, where she was instrumental in establishing a proper court, and where once again she endeared herself to the local populace through her philanthropy, charitable works, and frequent visits to the poorer areas of the newly-created Empire.

As the social and political situation in Mexico worsened, Charlotte famously travelled in 1867 to France to demand military and financial assistance from Napoléon III. During the interview with the Emperor, she suffered a nervous and mental breakdown, from which she never recovered. Pronounced clinically insane, Charlotte spent the next sixty years of her life being cared for by her Belgian relatives, and dying in 1927 a few months short of her 87^th birthday.

To be continued…