RKD STUDIES

Different ways of acquiring paintings have been briefly described here. They would have to include works of sculpture, ivory,¹ china,² jewellery, applied art, naturalia, artificialia, books, drawings, prints etc. to give an overview of the emerging collections and would, to give the full picture of the duke‘s cultural efforts, have to give account of his building projects, both realised and merely discussed ones.³ Still, the collection of paintings already gives interesting insights with regard to the influences which the process of acquisition had on its shape, which are still discernible today.

The duke’s early efforts to use his own personal acquaintances among artists in building up the collection certainly led to these artists being well represented in the collection. This holds especially true for an artist like Balthasar Denner who came to Mecklenburg himself to receive commissions from the ducal family. There are at least 64 works by Denner in Schwerin today, not only portraits [1-4]. As indicated above, the case of Jan van Huijsum’s five works in Schwerin evolved in a much more complicated way, as did the long list of acquisitions of paintings by Jean-Baptiste Oudry [5]. The works by Frans van Mieris the Elder were sought after and were mostly found at auctions, but several visits to his son and grandson in Leiden resulted in a number of works in Schwerin by these two successors to the Leiden style. In the same way, the visit paid by Van Hafften to the widow of Godefridus Schalcken resulted in an outstanding work of the artist in the duke’s possession. From very specific predilections on the part of the collector this painting was deaccessioned only one year later, making it one of the treasures of the Mauritshuis today [6], a fact that, for Schwerin, may seem deplorable, but illustrates how precise the collector’s vision of a successful paintings collection was in this early phase.⁴

1
Balthasar Denner
Head of an old lady
Schwerin, Staatliches Museum Schwerin, inv./cat.nr. G 2440

2
Balthasar Denner
Portrait of Denner's daughter Esther (ca. 1710-ca. 1760)
Schwerin, Staatliches Museum Schwerin, inv./cat.nr. G 1048

It is striking that most of the works which are still considered the most important paintings in the collection have, except for a few pieces, all been acquired in the early phase of the duke’s collecting activities when he sent his agent to the Dutch Republic and was in contact with living artists. A notable exception is the Sentry by Carel Fabritius, which has only been recognised as a masterwork since 1807.⁵ During the later phase when he bought from dealers in Hamburg, Christian Ludwig mostly acquired works of lesser importance that filled up the walls but lack the singular impact that most of his early investments possess.

In this second phase a pattern emerged in which dealers tended to offer works by artists who were already represented in the collection by one or more works. This reduced the risk for both parties since the dealer already knew that his client was interested in that particular artist’s work and the buyer had works at hand to compare and ascertain the attribution and quality of the work offered. It seems to be this effect that has brought to Schwerin a striking number of works by artists like Willem van Aelst (9 paintings) [7],⁶ Jan Asselijn (7) [8],⁷ Ludolf Bakhuizen (10) [9],⁸ Pieter van Bloemen (9),⁹ Herman Saftleven (9),¹⁰ and Otto Marseus van Schrieck (7) [10],¹¹ even if occasionally some have turned out to be wrong attributions. The same reasons may apply to the large amount of works in the collection which are signed. According to the catalogue of 1882, numbering 1,147 old master paintings in the Schwerin museum, over six hundred bear some kind of signature or monogram, all of which are reproduced.¹²

7
Willem van Aelst
Still life with nautilus cup, dated 1672
Schwerin, Staatliches Museum Schwerin, inv./cat.nr. G 52