RKD STUDIES

Research into 18th-century painting collections in Frankfurt has found that, in terms of painting school, there was a focus on German artists and in particular on regional Frankfurt artists; on average, Dutch and Flemish paintings never reached a share of more than one third.¹ In Prehn’s collection, the Netherlandish paintings made up only about a quarter of the total. As is generally the case in Frankfurt collections of the time – exceptions such as the Städel collection confirm the rule – the Italian and the French artists were underrepresented in Prehn's collection.² This holds true for both the Miniature Cabinet and the ‘larger‘ paintings, as can be seen in table [12].

At first glance the percentage of Dutch and Flemish paintings does not seem very high, even though these schools are second and third in the ranking. However, if we include the 18th-century artists from Frankfurt and the Rhine region who were mostly imitators of Netherlandish painting of the 17th century, it becomes clear that Prehn’s taste was formed and dominated by Netherlandish art. It was the art historian Horst Gerson who coined this Dutch retro style as ‘Nachwirkung’ (‘legacy’ or ‘impact’) in his Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holländischen Malerei (Dispersal and Legacy of Dutch Painting of the 17th century).³ Most of the artists in Prehn’s collections belong to the Frankfurt school of the 18th century and are all addressed in Gerson’s text. Rather well-known are Christian Georg Schütz I (1718–1791) and Johann Georg Trautmann (1713–1769), who are represented in the Miniature Cabinet with 35 and 13 paintings, respectively.⁴ Interestingly, Prehn’s collection is also a treasure trove for lesser-known painters from Frankfurt and the Rhine region working in the Netherlandish manner. One of them is Georg Heinrich Hergenröder (1736–1799), who is represented with three of his characteristic grotto interiors in the manner of Abraham van Cuylenborch I (1620–1658).⁵ Also Johann Jacob Mövius (1767–1836),⁶ following Christian Georg Schütz I in his river landscapes, and Karl Franz Kraul (1754–1796),⁷ who chose the works of Jacob van Ruisdael as models for his forest landscapes, are representatives of this group, to mention but a few.

A rare artist mentioned by Gerson is Friedrich Wilhelm Ducrée (1719–1760), a pupil of the genre- and still life-painter Justus Juncker (1703–1767).⁸ Four of his paintings feature in the Miniature Cabinet ─ apart from these works, the artist is only known from a design for a book illustration and some entries in 18th-century auction catalogues.⁹ As Gerhard Kölsch has remarked, Riders preparing for the falconry and its companion, the Moonlit landscape with riders and bystanders by a fire, are painted swiftly and skilfully in reddish-brown tones, avoiding too strong chiaroscuro contrasts [13-14].¹⁰ Both paintings are rooted in 17th-century Dutch painting: the first is clearly based on paintings with the same subject by Philips Wouwerman (1619–1668), whereas the topic and composition of the latter derive from depictions of popular life in the countryside painted by the Bamboccianti, the circle of mainly Dutch and Flemish artists living and working in Italy, especially in Rome, in the 17th century.

Besides 18th-century artworks from the Rhine-Main area, the Miniature Cabinet also contains many ‘Nachwirkung’ artists from other German-speaking regions. Friedrich Rauscher I (1754–1808) from Coburg for example is represented with two landscapes.¹¹ A handful of paintings originate from Dresden, where artists like Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich (1712–1774) ¹² or Alexander Thiele (1685–1752) ¹³ worked in the ‘Dutch style’. Of the many paintings once attributed to Christian Hilfgott Brand (1694–1756)¹⁴ and his son Johann Christian Brand (1722–1795),¹⁵ the most famous representatives of the Vienna school of painting, only a pair of landscapes in the Miniature cabinet is nowadays connected to the name of the former. A pastoral piece by Johann Franz Lauterer (1700–1733) shows that this Austrian artist had specialised in imitating southern landscapes in the manner of a Nicolaes Berchem (1621–1683).¹⁶

According to the auction catalogue of 1829 the next largest group in the Miniature Cabinet were paintings from Nuremberg. A Landscape with the Flight into Egypt signed by Bartholomäus Wittig (1614–1684) is the only example of his small-sized landscapes on copper for which he was famous in his time [15].¹⁷ It is known for a fact that his small copper paintings were highly popular because they were the subject of a legal dispute.¹⁸ However, most of works that are still known today, are genre scenes with rather large figures in the style of the Bamboccianti. Wittig's painting in the Prehn Collection thus expands our knowledge about the artist’s oeuvre.

12
The composition of Prehn’s art collections according to painting schools
Source: Ellinghaus 2021

13
Friedrich Wilhelm Ducrée
Riders preparing for the falconry
Frankfurt am Main, Historisches Museum Frankfurt, inv./cat.nr. hmf.Pr437

14
Friedrich Wilhelm Ducrée
Moonlit landscape with riders and bystanders by a fire
Frankfurt am Main, Historisches Museum Frankfurt, inv./cat.nr. hmf.Pr438

15
Bartholomäus Wittig
Landscape with the flight into Egypt
Frankfurt am Main, Historisches Museum Frankfurt, inv./cat.nr. HMF, Pr748