An important Berlin KPM krater-form vase with a view of Unter den Linden
With ormolu mountings on wooden base, textile coverings. Model no. 1466. Fired in two parts and mounted, with a star-shaped nut. Painted with a panoramic view of the famous street in Berlin seen from the west, with the Prinz Heinrich Palais (Humboldt University), the Neue Wache, the Zeughaus, and Berlin Cathedral on one side of the bridge, on the other side the palace, the Kommandantur, the Kronprinzenpalais, the Prinzessinnenpalais and the State Opera. Above and below this Neoclassical borders with palmettes, beading, vermicelli, and acanthus. Blue sceptre mark, brown eagle mark, painter's marks. H 49.2 cm.
1830, decor attributed to Eduard Wilhelm Forst, the bronze mountings by Werner und Mieth, Berlin.
These panoramic views, depicted as if seen from above, are a perfect expression of municipal pride in the city's modernisation. This manner of depicting the skyline was developed by the Irish artist Robert Barker, who painted his first panorama in 1788. The genre was subsequently popularised in Berlin by the paintings of Eduard Gaertner (1801 - 1877), who settled in Berlin in as an independent artist following his return from Paris in 1828. His stunning large-scale panoramas, often depicting unusual aspects of the new buildings of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, were highly appreciated in the city. His biography also influenced the development of this vase: Gaetner began his apprenticeship in the painters' department at KPM in 1813. Although the talented young artist left the manufactory in 1821, his radical ideas still influenced the remaining painters, as illustrated by the design of this important vase.
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Provenance
From a Prussian aristocratic collection.
Literature
Cf. a Munich-form vase with a similar view in the Twinight Collection (cat.: Raffinesse und Eleganz, Munich 2007, no. 112), sold in Lempertz auction 1065 on 30th April 2016, lot 196.
The present vase could be the example presented by Eduard Wilhelm Forst at the Academy exhibition in 1830, described as: "Vase ohne Henkel, rund herum bemalt mit der Gegend vom Königl. Schlosse zu Berlin bis zu den Linden als Panorama, nebst reicher Vergoldung" (ibd. p. 349).