9.2 The Confectioner’s Paintings and their Provenance
In 1799, Prehn must already have owned a large number of very small paintings. In that year, Johann Ludwig Ernst Morgenstern (1738-1819) [7] suggested the confectioner to create a cabinet for his collection of small-format works. In a letter to his son Johann Friedrich in Dresden, dated 29 May 1799, Morgenstern describes the event and also the appearance of the Small Cabinet that Prehn had almost immediately devised and constructed.1 In a sense, this Small Cabinet can be regarded as the prototype of the later Miniature Cabinet, for it also consisted of hinged boxes that could be opened like an upright book. Unfortunately, it is unclear when the construction of the Miniature Cabinet started. On the basis of a few reliable dates of acquisition or creation of pictures, we can only say that about half of the 32 boxes in their present appearance could not have been arranged before 1808/9. Prehn must have been working on several boxes at the same time. Almost all of the acquisitions from the aforementioned auction in 1808, for example, are found in different boxes in the final arrangement as shown in the auction catalogue of 1829.2
Our knowledge of the entirety of the confectioner’s art cabinet is due to this 104-page auction catalogue for the Prehn Collection published in 1829: eight years after the father’s death, the three heirs had decided to break up and sell the collection.3 In addition to the Miniature Cabinet, Johann Valentin Prehn owned over 4,000 prints and more than over 300 paintings of — as it says in the auction catalogue — a ‘larger’ size.4 In the so-called Small Cabinet, 160 miniatures, gouaches, drawings and porcelain medallions were arranged in eight foldable boxes in a similar way to the Miniature Cabinet, but there were also other miniatures bound in books, enamel paintings, glass paintings, mosaics, a variety of works in silver, bronze, iron and pewter, as well as an impressive number of pieces of Meissen porcelain. These artificialia were supplemented by antiquities and naturalia, including ethnographic objects from South America, stuffed birds and minerals. The confectioner’s entire legacy became dispersed, apart from the Miniature Cabinet, some curiosities and 38 paintings of ‘larger’ size, now also in the Historisches Museum Frankfurt.5
A vivid picture of the art collection in Prehn’s house is conveyed by a watercolour drawing of 1829. Carl Morgenstern (1811–1893), grandson of the aforementioned neighbour Johann Ludwig Ernst Morgenstern, created it just at the time the auction was being prepared [8].6 The walls are covered to the ceiling with the ‘larger’ paintings, flanked by counterparts arranged in axial symmetry. In the middle of the room are two cupboards, as high as a tables, with paintings on its sides. Presumably, they had doors or drawers at the back and served both for presentation and for stowing away more artworks; two large folios, carelessly stacked one on top of the other, seem to attest to recent use. The two cupboards may even have contained the 32 foldable boxes or sections of the Miniature Cabinet, of which the first is displayed in open position on the easel.7
The heirs were well aware of the uniqueness of this Miniature Cabinet, for they withdrew it from the auction to preserve it in its entirety.8 Instead, Prehn’s son Ernst Friedrich Carl took care of it, added a few more works to it and began to change the arrangement. Most of the artists’ names noted on the reverse of the paintings (to which I will occasionally refer in the following) show his handwriting. After his death, his siblings donated the Miniature Cabinet to the city of Frankfurt.9 Subsequently, the inspector of the Städelsche Kunstinstitut, Johann David Passavant (1787–1861), was commissioned to compile a scholarly catalogue of the collection, which appeared in 1843, listing 851 items.10 At the same time, he reorganised the Miniature Cabinet by artistic schools, which was in line with the museum’s changed requirements. In short, the present composition of the original 811 pictures in 32 boxes is a reconstruction of the situation of 1829. It was implemented in 1988 by Kurt Wettengl and Victoria Schmidt-Linsenhoff as part of the new arrangement of the permanent exhibition on private collections in Frankfurt. Recently, the arrangement was corrected in some places as a result of the catalogue raisonné project.11
Presumably, Prehn bought the works in his collection all in Frankfurt. But what opportunities did the Frankfurt art market offer to acquire such small-sized paintings? With its vivid, flourishing trade fair, Frankfurt was the most important marketplace for art in Germany besides Hamburg and Leipzig; and, it had very strong connections to the Netherlands.12 In addition to stationary art dealers such as the Prestel or Reinheimer families, art dealers from various European centres came to the city twice a year, for the Easter and Autumn fairs. From the middle of the 18th century, the end of each fair was marked by fine art auctions which were held in rented public halls or, probably more frequently, on the sellers’ premises. Initially, these auctions were still private, but they rapidly professionalized. Johann Valentin and especially his son Ernst Friedrich Carl collected the catalogues that were printed for these auctions.13 The University Library J. C. Senckenberg today still holds more than 60 auction catalogues dating from 1763 to 1831 (covering nearly 70 years) originally owned by the Prehn Family.14 Carl added a handwritten index of artists’ names to each catalogue, and many are annotated with buyers and prices. Unfortunately, they hardly contain information on previous owners: only 58 out of the total of 874 paintings are listed with information on provenance (which amounts to less than 7 %). For the Dutch and Flemish school, I counted 23 such cases (including some of the lost ‘larger-sized’ paintings).
An interesting example of a work in his collection with further provenance information was once part of the auction organized by the painter and art dealer Johann Andreas Benjamin Nothnagel (1729–1804) in 1784. Johann Valentin Prehn did not buy anything at this event, but his son Carl carefully recorded in the annotated auction catalogue which of the items became part of his father’s collection over time. The respective 12 paintings were purchased by nine different people in 1784, but there is no evidence of how and when they ended up in the confectioner’s possession. One of these paintings was A Doctor with a Sick Lady and her Mother by Jan Steen (1626–1679). Numerous versions of this popular subject exist either by the artist himself or his workshop. A version that appeared on the art market in 2004 may serve here as a comparative example [10]. Prehn’s version can be located in the lowest row on the right-hand wall of Prehn’s painting saloon in the watercolour drawing by Carl Morgenstern [9].15 It was Princess Henriette Amalie of Anhalt-Dessau (1720–1793) who bought it in 1784 for 10.15 gulden for her art collection which she kept in her estate in Bockenheim outside the gates of Frankfurt. 1794, after her death, it still shows up in the inventory of her painting collection there, but by 1811 it must have been put up for sale, because it was restored for Johann Valentin Prehn during that year by his neighbour Morgenstern.16 It is not yet clear how and from whom the confectioner acquired the painting. It is not clear, either, why Ernst Friedrich Carl followed the work on the Frankfurt art market – did the fact that it had been previously owned by a princess perhaps made the painting especially interesting?17 Or was Prehn merely interested in tracking the prices of various works of art, or of their respective attributions to particular artists?
It seems plausible that Johann Valentin Prehn purchased most of his artworks not at auctions but from art dealers.18 With regard to the Miniature Cabinet, size mattered and ranked before quality. The tricky task of arranging the cabinet, which a visitor in 1843 accurately referred to as an ‘Art Gallery for the King of Lilliput’19, must have become more and more difficult as it progressed. The remaining space had already been measured, as the 31st box shows, where the entry for Number 781 in the auction catalogue says ‘vacant’ but gives the concrete dimensions [11]. So I imagine that the confectioner, visiting his art dealer in search of a companion piece for the little Flemish landscape to the left of the free space, would have been kindly asked: ‘How small would you like it, Mr Prehn?’
7
Ursula Magdalena Prestel
Portrait of Johann Ludwig Ernst Morgenstern (1738-1819), c.. 1806
Frankfurt am Main, Historisches Museum Frankfurt, inv./cat.nr. B.2018.010
8
Carl Morgenstern
Johann Valentin Prehn’s painting collection, dated 1829
Frankfurt am Main, Historisches Museum Frankfurt, inv./cat.nr. HMF B0639
9
Detail of fig 8: Jan Steen, A doctor with a sick lady and her mother
10
manner of/circle of Jan Steen
Interior with a woman and a doctor feeling her pulse, c. 1660
Amsterdam, The Hague, New York City, Berlin (city, Germany), art dealer Galerie Van Diemen & Co
11
Diptych with paintings from the collection of Johann Valentin Prehn (1749-1821), section 31 (reconstruction), c. 1799-1821
panel, oil paint 93 x 130 cm
Frankfurt am Main, Historisches Museum Frankfurt
Notes
1 For this discovery I thank Sophia Dietrich-Häfner, who evaluated the order books of the Morgenstern family and discovered the letter transcript in the Institute for Urban History in Frankfurt (Institut für Stadtgeschichte, Nachlass Inge Eichler, S1/447 34 unpaginated). In detail: Ellinghaus 2021, pp. 151–152. At the same time Johann Ludwig Ernst Morgenstern began to create his own Miniature Cabinet, which consisted of copies after paintings he (and later his son and grandson) had restored. Two of the winged, altar-like cabinets are preserved in the HMF (inv. no. B.1981.11 and B.1981.12) and one in the Freies Deutsches Hochstift, Frankfurter Goethe-Museum (inv. no. IV-1980-004): Wettengl/Schmidt-Linsenhoff 1988, pp. 123–145. Maisak/Kölsch 2011, pp. 180–190, cat. no. 184 (G. Kölsch). Cilleßen 2012.
2 Probably J.F. Morgenstern, the Prehn sales catalogue 1829 (Lugt 12199), pp. 1–28: ‘I. Eine Sammlung Kleiner Oelgemälde’ (A collection of small oil-paintings).
3 The Prehn sales catalogue 1829 (Lugt 12199); Ellinghaus 2021, p. 137
4 The Prehn sales catalogue 1829 (Lugt 12199): ‘II. Eine Sammlung grösserer Oelgemälde. In accordance with this usage, in the following this part of the collection will be referred to as the ‘larger’ paintings. Since 2023, the author has been engaged in a research project on these ‘larger’ paintings. The results will be part of the Prehn collection online database.
5 On the curiosities: Wettengl/Schmidt-Linsenhoff 1988, pp. 108–109. Most of the ‘larger’ paintings were donated by Prehn’s daughter Johanna Rosina Sänger in 1850; HMF, inv. no. B212, B602-B639, B914 (with B611 given to the Städel Museum and B615 being a WWII loss). Wettengl/Schmidt-Linsenhoff 1988, pp. 109–112. Ellinghaus/Cilleßen 2012, p. 96.
6 As payment, Carl Morgenstern received 50 gulden and a fancy cake. Wettengl/Schmidt-Linsenhoff 1988, p. 38. Ellinghaus 2021, pp. 138–139.
7 In the auction catalogue of 1829 a box were called ‘Abteilung’ (section).
8 This becomes clear from a short note by a friend of the Prehn family in one exemplar of the Prehn sales catalogue 1829 (Lugt 12199). Ellinghaus 2021, p. 155. The earlier assumption that there had been a bid of 11,000 gulden for the Miniature Cabinet which had been rejected can no longer be substantiated. Holst 1931, p. 41.
9 On the donation: Jung 1903, p. 17. Wettengl/Schmidt-Linsenhoff 1988, pp. 35–38. Ellinghaus 2021, p. 156.
10 Passavant 1843.
11 Wettengl/Schmidt-Linsenhoff 1988, pp. 44–107. On the changes made: Ellinghaus 2021, p. 158.
12 A comprehensive study of the Frankfurt art market in the 18th and early 19th centuries is still lacking. For a brief overview and first approach: Kölsch 2002-2003, pp. 77–78. Cilleßen 2021, esp. pp. 52–59. On the Frankfurt art market in earlier times: Kirch/Münch/Stewart 2019.
13 Auction catalogues up to the year 1800 are searchable in the Getty provenance index.
14 All of them are digitised and can be found via the library catalogue (opac).
15 Nothnagel sales catalogue, 2 August 1784, no. 564; Prehn sales catalogue 1829 (Lugt 12199), p. 48, No 254.
16 ‘Nachtrag zu dem Inventario über den Nachlaß von (...) Prinzeßin Henriette Amalie zu Anhalt (...)’, dated 1794, Landeshauptarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Abteilung Oranienbaum, Amalienstiftung Dessau, C 4 Lit J Nr. 1 II, fol. 61, Nr. 265 („Pulsfühlender Arzt“). I thank Gerhard Kölsch for sharing this archival material with me. On the painting collection of Henriette Amalie: Kölsch 2002-2003. Order book Morgenstern, p. 287.
17 For this reason, which was to lead to improved sales opportunities, Matthias Oesterreich (1716–1778), for example, added provenance notes to the list of sales of the Gotzkowsky Collection in Berlin in 1766. Frank 2002, p. 139.
18 Prehn was of course able to acquire contemporary works from the respective artists themselves, although there is no evidence that the confectioner himself appeared as a client—with the exception of his neighbour, painter Morgenstern.
19 Sieveking 1928, p. 647.