A Berlin KPM biscuit porcelain group depicting the crown princess and princess Ludwig
Model no. 1246. Blue sceptre mark. The base with firing cracks and one to the back of the base next to the hand holding the drapery. H 55 cm.
1st half 20th C., the model by Johann Gottfried Schadow and Friedrich Hagemann, August 1796.
This group reproduces the famous sculpture of crown princess Luise, wife of crown prince Friedrich Wilhelm, and her sister Friederike, wife of Prinz Friedrich Ludwig Karl. Johann Gottfried Schadow received the commission to depict the two young princesses in 1794 on the recommendation of state minister Friedrich Anton von Heinitz. Financed by the royal porcelain manufactory, Schadow's pupil Carl Friedrich Hagemann created the model for this version in porcelain based on designs by Karl Heinrich Schwarzkopf. The life-sized marble model was completed in July 1797 and was also paid for from the coffers of KPM.
Provenance
Private collection, Berlin.
Literature
A further, later version can be found in the Decorative Arts Museum in Berlin (in: Ponert, Berlin Museum, Keramik, Berlin 1985, no. 38).
Cf. Heim, Die Berliner Porzellanplastik und ihre skulpturale Dimension 1751 - 1825, Berlin 2016, no. 144. The author writes: "Große Sorgfalt ließ Schadow bei der subtilen Gestaltung beider Prinzessinnen walten, die, über die allgemeine Charakterisierung ihrer Physiognomie hinaus, das Bemühen um die Widergabe ihrer Wesenszüge und politischen Aufgaben erahnen lässt." (p. 531)