Lot 2167 Dα

Ferdinand von Rayski came from Saxon nobility, his father was a colonel in the Saxon army and adjutant general to King Frederick August I; he himself trained as an officer before embarking on an artistic career and enrolling at the Dresden Art Academy. His background and his knowledge of officer life made him the most important chronicler, especially of the Saxon nobility. Wolf Saladin von Schönberg was a Saxon cavalry captain in the 1st light cavalry regiment in Freiberg. Rayski also painted a full-length portrait of him in the same year with Freiberg Cathedral in the background (cf. Otto Grautoff: Ferdinand von Rayski, Leipzig 1922, p. 49). This portrait is a characteristic example of Ferdinand von Rayski's portraits of nobility and officers, in which the artist's painterly brilliance is particularly evident in the rendering of the armour and weapons.