Lot 2563 Dα

This charming painting shows two elegantly dressed young ladies in an overgrown garden, accompanied by their faithful dog. The ladies can be identified through the detailed later inscriptions on the reverse of the painting, which has remained in family ownership since it was made: They are the daughters of the painter Andreas Achenbach. Seated we see Emma von Bassewitz (1849 Düsseldorf - 1929 Dersentin/Mecklenburg) and standing Countess Lucie von der Gröben-Ludwigsdorf (1852 - 1928 Ludwigsdorf/West Prussia). This double portrait was painted in 1871, the year of the two sisters' weddings. Emma married in April of that year, and the younger Lucie then followed in October.

The famous Düsseldorf painter Andreas Achenbach chose his renowned colleague Carl Heinrich Hoff, who was active in the same city and whom he certainly knew personally, as the portraitist of his daughters. Following his initial training at the Karlsruhe Art Academy, Carl Heinrich Hoff continued his studies in Düsseldorf in the studio of Benjamin Vautier from 1858-1861. From 1859-1878 he was a member of the Düsseldorf artists' association “Malkasten”, and during these years he also married the daughter of another Düsseldorf painter, Carl Ferdinand Sohn. It was not until 1878 that Carl Heinrich Hoff left Düsseldorf to take up a professorship at the Karlsruhe Art Academy.