8. Connoisseurship as a Parlour Game – An Anecdote by Wilhelm Tischbein
Stefanie Rehm
Connoisseurship is not learned at university, has not been for a long time, but it is still in demand in museums and on the art market. Because even the most innovative technical examination methods, the most sophisticated evaluations of the written sources and the historical context often reach their limits in the attribution of objects. Then good old style-criticism comes into play, and with it the connoisseur. He has seen thousands of pictures, and, after this long practice of the eye, he possesses something akin to visual intuition.1
With these words, Sebastian Preuss introduces his review of a biography of Max J. Friedländer (1867-1958) in Weltkunst in 2016. In the late 18th century, the attribution of a painting could be an amusing parlour game as can be learned from the memoirs of Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829) [1]. He is a member of the well-known German artist family Tischbein and is mainly known for the time he spent with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) in Italy. Due to this and the famous portrait he painted of the poet, he earned the moniker 'Goethe-Tischbein' [2].2 Less well-known, however, is his great interest in Dutch art of the 17th century and the expertise he acquired during a study trip to the Netherlands in 1772-1773.3 This journey is recorded in his memoirs, which were published posthumously in 1861 and in 1957.4 In addition, various personal notes and manuscripts have been preserved in his legal estate in the Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Oldenburg.5 In his memoirs, Tischbein describes his travel experiences and especially the collections he visited. The memoirs are peppered with insightful anecdotes disclosing the historical development of connoisseurship in an exemplary manner.
Cover image
Wilhelm Tischbein
Two art viewers, c. 1815
Oldenburg (place, Lower Saxony), Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Oldenburg, inv./cat.nr. 15.000/190
1
Wilhelm Tischbein
Self portrait of Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829), c. 1810
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle
2
Wilhelm Tischbein
Goethe in the Roman Campagna, dated 1787
Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum, inv./cat.nr. 1157
Notes
1 'An der Universität lernt man Kennerschaft längst nicht mehr, aber in den Museen und am Kunstmarkt ist sie nach wie vor begehrt. Denn selbst die innovativsten technischen Untersuchungsmethoden, die raffiniertesten Auswertungen der Schriftquellen und des historischen Kontexts stoßen bei der Werkbestimmung häufig an ihre Grenzen. Dann kommt die gute alte Stilkritik ins Spiel; und damit der Kunstkenner. Er hat Tausende von Bildern gesehen und verfügt nach langer Augenschulung über so etwas wie visuelle Intuition.' Preuss 2016. Elson 2015.
2 The moniker 'Goethe-Tischbein' helps to distinguish him more easily from the quite numerous representatives of the Hessian family of painters. Over three generations most Tischbeins were called Johann or Heinrich and all were active between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries. Wilhelm Tischbein, short for Johann Heinrich Wilhelm, born in Haina in 1751, was apprenticed to his uncle Johann Heinrich Tischbein I (1722-1789) in Kassel and Johann Jacob Tischbein (1725-1791) in Hamburg. He continued his education in various places before a travel grant from the Kassel Art Academy took him to Italy. Tischbein's Italian years between 1779 and 1799 culminated in the post of director of the Naples Academy of Art. Later, back in Germany, he worked as court painter to Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig of Oldenburg (1755-1829) in his summer residence in Eutin, where Tischbein died in 1829. On Tischbein: Mildenberger 1986. On the Tischbein Family: Eissenhauer et al. 2005-2006.
3 On Tischbein's study trip to the Netherlands: Rehm 2020.
4 Schiller 1861. Mittelstädt 1956.
5 The notes and manuscripts of Tischbein kept in the estate are of great importance, since the research is uncritically based on the revised posthumous edition. Before the publication of his memoirs in 1861, 50 years after the first manuscript, Tischbein's autobiography was to experience a complex edition history with various changes by different hands. Only the first manuscript of the memoirs from 1811, written by Tischbein himself, can be called the original manuscript. Also of importance is a transcription from 1824, which was made a few years before Tischbein's death and which contains personal additions. Wilhelm Tischbein, Manuscript of the Memoirs, Oldenburg, Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, PT 26 (original manuscript from 1811), PT 833 (old transcription from 1824). On the complex edition of the memoirs: Rehm 2016.