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- 1. Gerrit van Honthorst (1592-1656)
Portrait of William II of Orange-Nassau and Three of His Sisters, 1635
Oil on canvas - 145.5 x 140 cm
Gartenreich Dessau-Wörlitz, Schloss Oranienbaum
Photo: Sotheby’s - See the image in its page
12/5/23 - Acquisition - Gartenreich Dessau-Wörlitz, Schloss Oranienbaum - Long considered lost, a large and beautiful painting (ill. 1) painted in 1635 by Gerrit van Honthorst was presented at Schloss Oranienbaum a few weeks ago following its "acquisition" by the Kulturstiftung Dessau-Wörlitz, with the support of the German federal government, the Land of Saxony-Anhalt and various patrons, among whom the indispensable Kulturstiftung der Länder and Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung. One can recognize four "children of the Golden Age", to use the title of a recent exhibition at the Fondation Custodia (see article): Prince William II of Orange-Nassau (1626-1650) and three of his sisters, Louise Henriette (1627-1667), Isabelle Charlotte (1632-1645) and Albertine Agnes (1634-1696). The children of the union of Stathouder Frederick Henri of Nassau (1584-1647) and Amalia von Solms-Braunfels (1602-1675), these charming toddlers, depicted in court attire in a wooded landscape, decorated the Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, the family’s residence, in the seventeenth century before crossing the border. The painting was brought to Germany by Henrietta Catherine of Orange-Nassau (1637-1708), who married Prince Johann Georg II. of Anhalt-Dessau (1627-1693) in 1659.
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- 2. Orianenbaum Castle
Photo: Michael Sander (CC BY-SA 3.0) - See the image in its page
It is to this Dutch princess that we owe the castle of Oranienbaum (ill. 2): the former village of Nischwitz had been renamed as early as 1673 in homage to her family origins, the estate being moreover about to celebrate its 350 years. Ironically, Henriette Catherine of Orange-Nassau does not appear in this family portrait painted two years before her birth but which she certainly inherited after the death of her sister Albertine Agnes in 1696. The two older princesses can be recognized on the right of another portrait by Gerrit van Honthorst, which never left the Netherlands and is now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The 1635 portrait now hangs in the Oranienbaum ballroom, but was once on display at the small castle in Solitude, between Dessau and Wörlitz, which was demolished in the 1970s.
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- 3. Detail of the face reappearing under the coat
Photo: Sotheby’s - See the image in its page
Absent from the specialized literature, only mentioned in the artist’s catalog raisonné published by J. Richard Judson and Rudolf E. O. Ekkart in 1999, this painting certainly deserves further research that may clarify the author of the still lifes of fruit and flowers that occupy the foreground and are certainly not Gerrit van Honthorst’s, or the identity of the figure visible through a pentimento under the young prince’s cloak (ill. 3). The painting was kept in the Residenzschloss in Dessau until 1937, when it disappeared, but was acquired - probably in the late 1940s - by the industrialist Josef Kaiser (1862-1950), founder of Kaiser’s Kaffee-Geschäft GmbH. Kept by his family, who knew neither its origin nor the people depicted, it was entrusted to Sotheby’s in February 2021 but never saw the auction room because Herbert van Mierlo, Senior Valuations Specialist, and Baukje Coenen, Senior International Specialist for Old Masters, quickly discovered the prestigious princely origin of these children’s portraits.
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- 4. Photographie ancienne montrant la peinture au château de Solitude en 1910
- See the image in its page
The painting was only known from an early photograph (ill. 4) published in 1997, where it is easily distinguished among the elegant neoclassical decorations of the Schloss Solitude, built at the end of the 18th century for Leopold III. Friedrich Franz von Anhalt-Dessau, creator of the Gartenreich Dessau-Wörlitz. Based on the records of Kaiser GmbH and the princely family of Anhalt-Dessau, who did not claim the painting and were in favor of acquiring it for the benefit of public collections, Sotheby’s was able to trace the painting’s provenance and to contact those in charge of the Gartenreich Dessau-Wörlitz, who immediately decided to try to acquire this important work, which was therefore sold privately. For Wolfgang Savelsberg and Anette Froesch, successive directors of the Castles and Collections Department of the Gartenreich Dessau-Wörlitz, the deal was a natural one, as the institution was looking to better illustrate its German-Dutch cultural relations as well as to assemble a fine collection of family portraits. The painting will now be on view alongside other paintings by the same artist, such as the Portrait of Amalia von Solms-Braunfels with William and Louise Henriette from 1629 or his effigy as Diana, painted in 1632[[We are very grateful to Baukje Coenen, Senior international Specialist for Old Masters at Sotheby’s, for bringing this transaction to our attention and providing us with a great deal of information afterwards].