Lot 2080 Dα

Tischbein's self-portrait with his daughters Wilhelmine Caroline Amalie and Wilhelmine Ernestine Friederike is a previously undiscovered life-sized family portrait of the artist. The elder of the two girls, who was also a talented draughtswoman, is seated in the centre of the work at a drawing table. She is depicted in a sumptuous pale yellow gown over a white silk skirt and with a white scarf covering her chest and shoulders. Occupied with organising several sheets in front of her, she looks up from her work to meet the viewer's gaze. Her sister stands next to her, leaning against a chest of drawers. Her attention is focused entirely on the parrot perching on her right shoulder. In contrast to that of her sister, her clothing is much less formal and more relaxed. She wears a green dress, also with a white scarf, beneath a pale blue jacket with short sleeves that leave room for ochre coloured arm warmers lined with green cloth to match her green shoes.
The painter himself stands beside his daughters by an easel in the right background of the work. He wears a greyish brown jacket paired with a red kerchief, which he has also matched to his red shoes. He rests his left arm on a chair beside him, holding his palette and brushes, whilst his right hand holds a maulstick. On top of the cupboard next to him, a reproduction of the head of Laokoon, a female figure, and another model in stone or plaster are displayed in front of a mirror. Beside it we see the parrot's cage and a narrow book shelf placed against the plain back wall.
The drawing which Wilhelmine Amalie holds in her right hand provides information as to this work's development. The ink pen drawing depicts the composition, signature and date of the “first design of a family portrait”. However, the drawing does not show the present work, but rather the small-format version of a piece that was also signed and dated 1774, the details of which we know from a description provided by Tischbein's first biographer Josef Friedrich Engelschall (1) and which is today housed in the Landesmuseum Hanover. Tischbein the Elder chose a previously unknown format for the work, reducing its composition largely to the group of figures. The poses, gestures, colour palette of the portraits and furnishings are identical to those of the work in Hanover. However, in that work, the artist has removed the figures from the narrative setting of their father's studio and placed the life-sized portraits in the foreground. (2)
Tischbein's work is a masterpiece of his mature phase as a portraitist. He manages to express the character and traits of the sitters perfectly: The playful younger daughter alongside the elder daughter in her role as diligent student and future painter. He depicts the various textures of the materials in a subtle but nuanced colour palette, accentuated by the daylight illuminating the scene from one side. Meanwhile Tischbein modestly presents himself alongside his daughters as a father, widower, and scholar.

Dr. Marianne Heinz

(1) Engelschall, Josef Friedrich: Johann Heinrich Tischbein, ehem. Fürstlich Hessischer Rath und Hofmaler, als Mensch und Künstler dargestellt, nebst einer Vorlesung von W. J. C. G. Casparson, Nürnberg 1797, no. 33, p. 121; cf. also Bahlmann, Hermann: Johann Heinrich Tischbein, Diss. Munich 1911, no. 19, p. 72 and exhib. cat.: Kassel 1989, Johann Heinrich Tischbein d. Ä. (1722 - 1789), cat. no. 27, p. 164
(2) A drawing by the artist Conrad Geiger (1751-1808) sold in 2013 by Karl & Faber (8th November 2013, lot 111) could provide more insight into the lost painting. On the drawing, the artist notes that he visited Tischbein in Kassel in 1782 and sketched the family portrait. Aside from a few minor details, the drawing corresponds perfectly to Engelschall's description, down to the compositional sketch in the hand of Tischbein's elder daughter Wilhelmine Amalie, as well as to the painting in Hanover. Geiger does not appear to have seen the painting with the life-sized portraits. This is also listed as a drawing after Tischbein's lost family portrait, which would indicate that there was or is another version of the family portrait.