Contemporary portrait of Goethe's patron

[Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach]. Portrait of Duke Karl August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

€ 6,500.00

Unsigned, undated half-length portrait of the Duke (1757-1828), Goethe's friend and patron, in his early twenties. This work by an unidentified Thuringian master strongly resembles the one at Dornburg castle listed as no. 19 in Hans Wahl's census ("Pastellgemälde von unbekannter Hand. 1775-80"). Goethe frequently stayed at this Ducal palace when in Dornburg on business. The painting is probably one of a small number of contemporary copies based on the oil painting by Johann Ernst Heinsius (Wahl no. 14), but with softer contours and brighter colours, as common for pastel crayons.

Two tears of about eight centimetres each near top and bottom edge of paper, professionally restored. Occasional rubbing to colours; some overpaintings and staining. Ownership of the anthroposophical physician Karl Hanno Matthiolius (1923-91), dated Solingen-Landwehr, 28 Nov. 1945, on the reverse.