Friedrich Eduard Meyerheim - The Birthday Basket - Painting and Oil Study - image-1
Friedrich Eduard Meyerheim - The Birthday Basket - Painting and Oil Study - image-2
Friedrich Eduard Meyerheim - The Birthday Basket - Painting and Oil Study - image-1Friedrich Eduard Meyerheim - The Birthday Basket - Painting and Oil Study - image-2

Lot 1353 Dα

Friedrich Eduard Meyerheim - The Birthday Basket - Painting and Oil Study

Auction 1108 - overview Cologne
16.05.2018, 11:00 - Old Master Paintings and Drawings, Sculpture
Estimate: 18.000 € - 25.000 €
Result: 22.320 € (incl. premium)

Friedrich Eduard Meyerheim

The Birthday Basket - Painting and Oil Study

Oil on canvas and oil on painter's card. Painting: 21 x 16 cm. Oil study: 37.5 x 22.5 cm.
The painting signed as dated on the blue paper bag: F. E. Meyerheim 1865 The oil sketch with a confirmation of authenticity in the upper left: Von meinem Vater Eduard M - Paul Meyerheim.

The little girl in traditional dress gazes curiously into her basket of birthday gifts. Slowly and carefully she takes each of the little treasures out and lays them next to her on the floor - a wooden cockerel with real feathers, a tiny pitcher for her dolls, a box with a wooden lid, a pretzel, a bag (perhaps filled with candied almonds), and a big blue paper bag. She holds a posy of wildflowers in her right hand. In the background, we see the table set for a birthday party, complete with a cake.
The oil study for this painting varies in the colour of the dress, the position of the right hand, and lacks the posy.The very personal confirmation of authenticity by the equally well-known painter Paul Meyerheim, son of Friedrich Eduard Meyerheim, and the fact that the oil sketch has survived together with the painting add to this work's singularity and art historical significance.

Provenance

Painting: Geheimer Kommerzienrat von Hansemann, Berlin. - Auctioned by Christie's, London, 25.5.1995, lot 290 - Subsequently in English private ownership.
Oil study: Auctioned by Leo Spik, Berlin, 10.10.1996, lot 210. - Subsequently in English private ownership.

Literature

Friedrich von Boetticher: Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts - Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte, vol. 2, p. 45, no. 101.

Exhibitions

Karfunkels Berliner Kunstausstellung, 1866 - 9. Ausstellung der Berliner Nationalgalerie, 1880.