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Sep 2, 2014

Feb 25, 2008

Sep 2, 2014

Countess Széchenyi

1828

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller

(Austrian, 1793–1865)

Austria, 19th century

Oil on fabric

Framed: 121.5 x 102 x 10.5 cm (47 13/16 x 40 3/16 x 4 1/8 in.); Unframed: 97.8 x 78.5 cm (38 1/2 x 30 7/8 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1988.57

Location

219 19th Century European

Description

This portrait typifies painting in Vienna between 1815 and 1865, an era known as the Biedermeier period, during which the Habsburg government promoted positive artistic depictions of Viennese life and culture. The mountains in the background express both the artist's romantic fascination with nature and patriotic devotion to his Austrian homeland. The sitter, Crescentia Seilern, was a prestigious member of the aristocracy who married Hungarian reformist patriot István Széchenyi.

Video

Artist biography

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller was the leading innovator for Austrian portrait, landscape, and genre painting of the romantic period, substantially contributing to a style that came to be known as Biedermeier.1 His earliest art lessons were in flower painting with porcelain painter Josef Zintler (d. 1826). From 1808 until 1813 Waldmüller attended the Vienna Academy at intervals, studying with Hubert Maurer (1738-1818) and Johann Baptist Lampi (1775-1837). The next two years Waldmüller engaged in painting portrait miniatures. He undoubtedly perfected his painting technique significantly by studying and copying the great masters in the major Viennese galleries well into the 1820s. Between 1825 and 1856 he traveled to Italy, as well as to France and England, in Paris being presented to Emperor Napoleon III and in London to Queen Victoria. In 1827, the year before he painted Cleveland's Countess Zichy, Waldmüller had been introduced to the imperial court of Emperor Franz I and received the great honor of painting his portrait. In 1829 Prince Metternich appointed Waldmüller curator of the Lamberg Painting Gallery and professor of the Vienna Academy. However, his radical proposals to change academic teaching methods, by insisting that observation of and truth to nature were the only sources of art, would have ended his academic career in 1846 had Prince Metternich not intervened. Nevertheless, in 1855 his continued open criticism of academic procedures cost him his retirement, which, thanks to Emperor Franz I of Austria, was reinstated in 1863. Waldmüller's convincing honesty in portraying his sitters exactly as they were reflected the growing confidence of the bourgeoisie after the French revolutionary wars and Napoleon's final defeat in 1815. The artist's faithfulness to nature on the one hand, and his talent in portraying the elegance and luxury of his sitters' attire on the other, appealed to both the bourgeoisie and aristocracy. 1. The name Biedermeier was derived from a fictitious poet named Gottlieb Biedermaier (or Biedermeier) who was featured in the mid-nineteenth-century magazine Fliegende Blätter. "Bieder" describes a simple but honest and upstanding person, while "Meier" is a common German surname. The style pervaded all of Europe, but particularly Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Scandinavia, centering mainly in cities with active academies. See also Amerling, The Young Eastern Woman, no. 4.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed below the parrot: Waldmül[. . .] 1828

Provenance

Before 1906

Possibly Dr. Izidor Deutsch [d. 1906], Budapest ¹

Probably until 1925

Maximilian Mauthner, Schloss Feistritz, Wechsel, Austria ²

1925

(Sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, June 15, 1925, lot 69) ³

Before 1940

Possibly Dr. Paul Eger [1881-1947], Basel ⁴

1940

(Sale, Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, Nov. 7-9, 1940, lot 1250, sold to Galerie Nathan)

1940-

(Galerie Nathan, Zürich) ⁵

By 1970

(Erich von Kreibig, Munich) ⁶

1972

(Sale, Neumeister, Munich, Sept. 20-22, 1972, lot 1689 ⁷

From 1972?

(Galerie Grünwald, Munich) ⁸

By 1987?

Private collection, Munich ⁹

1988

(David Carritt, Ltd./Artemis Group, London, and Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1988-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Provenance Footnotes

¹A red wax seal on the back of the painting reads: “Dr. Deutsch Ügyved [attorney] Budapest.” This seal may refer to Dr. Izidor Deutsch, a Hungarian attorney who lived in Budapest, although thus far no documentary confirmation of his ownership has been located. His will, for instance, makes no references to any paintings or to an art collection.

²Mautner, a banker, purchased Schloss Feistritz in 1922, so if the attachment of Feistritz to Mautner’s name in Rupert Feuchtmüller's Waldmüller catalogue raisonné is at all linked with Mautner’s place of residence when he owned the painting, then his earliest possible year of ownership would be 1922.

³Feuchtmüller's catalogue raisonné says that Mautner had the painting until 1925. However, because the Dorotheum’s records do not include buyer/consignor information for sales prior to the late 1960s, that Mautner was the consignor to the sale has not been confirmed.

⁴The catalogue raisonné lists Dr. Paul Eger as a former owner of the Waldmüller, while the information provided to CMA by David Carritt, Ltd. situates it in a Basel private collection, presumably Eger's, prior to Galerie Nathan, although it is unknown whether Carritt knew of Eger’s identity. In 1993 CMA curator Ann Tzeutschler Lurie wrote to dealer Peter Nathan to inquire whether the Waldmüller had been in the possession of Eger. Nathan responded that “it is very well possible that [Eger], whom I myself knew, owned the painting”; his name, however, does not appear in Galerie Nathan’s records. The original source for the inclusion of Eger in this provenance is unclear. Eger was a theatre director and dramaturg who worked at the Stadttheaters Luzern and the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. Eger’s former assistant did not think that he had an art collection (Brigitte Abeida (Luzerner Theater), email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Aug. 24, 2015), a recollection that is at odds with Peter Nathan’s thoughts on Eger as a possible former owner of the painting. Another possibility is that Paul Eger was not a former owner of the painting: Izidor Deutsch was the brother-in-law of the Egger brothers, Béla Bernát, Henrik, Jakab, and David, of Egger & Co., a Budapest electrical company. Deutsch’s will does make several mentions of the Egger family, although it does not refer to his art collection. Deutsch was also named guardian of one of his brother-in-laws’ sons. While it could certainly be nothing more than a coincidence that Deutsch (if he was indeed the owner of the Waldmüller) was closely related to the Egger family, one must consider the possibility that the name “Eg[g]er” was seen at some point in connection with the painting, and Paul Eger, who was involved in artistic circles and who knew Peter Nathan, was assumed to have been the Eger who owned the painting. If it was in fact the Egger family who had the Waldmüller, then their positioning in the provenance could be incorrect: perhaps “Paul Eger” was placed after the Dorotheum sale due to his life dates when in fact “Egger” belongs directly after Deutsch, with Mautner following.

⁵The records of Galerie Nathan include a photograph of the Waldmüller in the gallery's 1941-1942 album and describe its sale “durch [through] Fischer LU[cerne],” which suggests that the painting was purchased at the Galerie Fischer sale in 1941. Gallery records do not show to whom Nathan sold the painting, although Peter Nathan wrote to Ann Tzeutschler Lurie in 1993 that it was possible the buyer was von Kreibig, although they had no confirming documentation. Johannes Fischer suspected that Nathan may have sold the painting again through Fischer in 1941 or 1942, perhaps in a private sale.

⁶In late 1970, Munich dealer Erich von Kreibig corresponded extensively with CMA curator Ann Tzeutschler Lurie regarding the museum’s interest in possibly acquiring the Waldmüller from Kreibig. In January 1971, Lurie informed Kreibig that the museum would not be purchasing the painting, in part due to budget considerations. Bruno Grimschitz’s Waldmüller monograph, published in 1957, gives a Munich private collector as the painting’s current owner, and CMA records situate the painting with von Kreibig in that year. While it is certainly possibly that von Kreibig had the painting in his personal collection by 1957 and then offered it to CMA in 1970, there are no indications in the documentation that Kreibig himself owned the painting for a lengthy period of time. All that is known about von Kreibig’s acquisition of the Waldmüller is that his family bought it in Switzerland. Thus, it may be that an unidentified Munich collector owned it in 1957 who may or may not have consigned the painting to von Kreibig by 1970.

⁷In 1997, Neumeister informed CMA that the painting had previously been in the collection of a Munich private collector who had died some time earlier; it is unknown whether or not this refers to Erich von Kreibig, and whether Neumeister is referring to the consignor to the auction or to a prior owner. Kreibig wrote to Ann Tzeutschler Lurie on December 31, 1971 (in CMA curatorial file) that he had been unable to sell the painting, so he may have consigned it to Neumeister for sale.

⁸The order in which Galerie Grünwald and the unidentified Munich private collector should appear in this provenance is unclear. According to the provenance information provided to CMA by David Carritt, Ltd., the painting was in a Munich private collection in 1987. The catalogue raisonné situates the painting with Galerie Grünwald in 1986, although his sources for the inclusion of Grünwald in the provenance are not specified, while CMA records indicate the painting was with Grünwald in 1972. This would suggest that Grünwald was the unknown buyer at the 1972 Neumeister sale, but it seems unlikely that the gallery would still have had the painting in its possession in 1986, as Feuchtmüller's chronology suggests. Carritt’s provenance makes no mention of Grünwald, and so it may be that Grünwald was the buyer at the Neumeister sale, and the painting was then sold to the private collector listed by Carritt. Alternatively, Grünwald may have been the intermediary between the private collector and Carritt/Sanct Lucas, although this, too, seems doubtful because Roman Herzig of Galerie Sanct Lucas does not recall Grünwald’s involvement.

⁹See note 6.

Citations

David Carrit, Ltd., invoice, July 14, 1988, in CMA curatorial file

Roman Herzig, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, March 19, 2015, in CMA curatorial file.

David Carritt, Ltd., painting information sheet, in CMA curatorial file.

Feuchtmüller, Rupert. Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller 1793-1865: Leben, Schriften, Werke. Wien: C. Brandstätter, 1996.

Neumeister, letter to Hannelore Osborne, March 3, 1997, in CMA curatorial file.

Feuchtmüller, Rupert. Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller 1793-1865: Leben, Schriften, Werke. Wien: C. Brandstätter, 1996.

Erich von Kreibig, letter to Ann Tzeutschler Lurie, Oct. 11, 1970, in CMA curatorial file.

Ann Tzeutschler Lurie, fax to Peter Nathan, Jan. 26, 1993, in CMA curatorial file.

Peter Nathan, letter to Ann Tzeutschler Lurie, Feb. 2, 1993, in CMA curatorial file.

Johannes Nathan, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Feb. 24, 2015, in CMA curatorial file.

Galerie Fischer. Nachlass des Herrn R., Genf ; aus Glarner und anderem Privatbesitz...italienische Meister des 14. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert, spanisiche, französische, deutsche, englische und holländische Schule, schweizer Meister. Lucerne: Galerie Fischer, Nov. 7-9, 1940.

Valérie Matzner, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, April 9, 2015, in CMA curatorial file.

Johannes Nathan, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Feb. 25, 2015, in CMA curatorial file

Feuchtmüller, Rupert. Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller 1793-1865: Leben, Schriften, Werke. Wien: C. Brandstätter, 1996.

Dorotheum (Wien). Gemälde des 19. Jahrhunderts, Gemälde alter Meister, Aquarelle, Miniaturen, Antiquitäten, Bronzen, Möbel, Keramik, Graphik. June 15-16, 1925.

Feuchtmüller, Rupert. Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller 1793-1865: Leben, Schriften, Werke. Wien: C. Brandstätter, 1996.

Katja Fischer, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Nov. 24, 2014, in CMA curatorial file.

Feuchtmüller, Rupert. Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller 1793-1865: Leben, Schriften, Werke. Wien: C. Brandstätter, 1996.

David Carritt, Ltd., painting information sheet, in CMA curatorial file.

Les Vince, email to Victoria Sears Goldman and Louis Adrean, Sept. 4, 2014, in CMA curatorial file.

Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. “Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Portrait of Crescentia, Countess Zichy (later Countess Széchenyi) with a Parrot and a Camellia in a Mountainous Landscape.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 1 (1994): 3-17. Reproduced: cover, details p. 9-11; Mentioned: p. 3-17 www.jstor.org

Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 637-638, Vol. II, no. 223

Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 441, fig. 10.31

Exhibition history

Vienna, Galerie St. Lucas. Winterausstellung (1987-88), no. 25, Porträt einer Gräfin Szechenyi (repr.).

The Year in Review for 1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 1-May 14, 1989).

Object in Focus: Countess Széchenyi and Her Prestigious Kashmir Shawl. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 25, 2003-January 4, 2004).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Countess Széchenyi|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1988.57|author=Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller|year=1828|access-date=05 June 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Countess Széchenyi

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