Lot 239 Dα

This painting depicts the Prussian king on horseback riding through a hilly landscape in the stooped pose for which he was known. He is followed by a younger man on a chestnut horse. The work is recorded under the title “Frederick the Great at Schweidnitz”, although it contains no traces of this town, which was one of the most hotly contested regions during the Seven Years' War. The motif is mentioned by Boetticher among the works of Emil Hünten (op. cit. no. 8) and he writes that M. Ulfers composed a lithograph based on it. According to Boetticher, the king is accompanied by the honorable Artillery Major Karl Wilhelm von Dieskau (1701-1777), to whom Frederick awarded the Pour le Mérite order in 1752.
A surviving woodcut after another of Hünten's compositions with this title also shows the king accompanied by the young major with the burning castle on the left, but the painting after which it was cut has since been lost.
Emil Hünten was the son of the composer Franz Hünten and was born in Paris. He was taught to paint there at the École des Beaux-Arts under Horace Vernet. Following this, the motifs of his works became heavily influenced by those of the Düsseldorf School painter Wilhelm Camphausen, who primarily painted horses. Hünten's paintings usually depict the contemporary events in war and politics which the artist had experienced first hand. Historical depictions such as the present work are comparatively seldom.