I. C. Dahl (b. Bergen 1788, d. Dresden 1857)
Raden Saleh (b. Semarang (Java) 1807, d. Bogor (Java) 1880)
Purchased by Thorvaldsens Museum in February 2013.
Portrait of the aging Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844). “Brystbillede i Arbejdskjortel”. Half-lenght portrait in working coat. 1841. Usigned. Dated d. 17. Juni and under the frame 1(8). Oil on canvas. 74×67 cm. Letter from 1925 from the Staatliche Gemäldegalerie in Dresden is enclosed.
Provenance: Friederike and Friedrich Anton Serre, Maxen Castle near Dresden. The Serre couple's adopted son and his wife. Hereafter, according to the wife's will, to the couple's three sons. Kunsthandlung (Art gallery) Dr. Schornstein. Business manager Øberg Pedersen, Aabyhøj (presumably from 1922). The Kruuse family, Aarhus (after 1925) and descendants till now.
A letter from the Staatliche Gemäldegalerie i Dresden is enclosed. Here the museum explains to business manager Øberg Pedersen, owner of the work back in 1925, that according to tradition the painting was created as a collaboration between I C. Dahl and the Javanese painter Raden Saleh. The two painters met at Maxen Castle near Dresden where the couple Friederike and Friedrich Anton Serre had created a meeting place for the artistic and philosophical elite from both Germany and abroad. Apart from Dahl and Saleh, here you could meet Bertel Thorvaldsen, H. C. Andersen, Franz Liszt, Robert og Clara Schumann, Jenny Lind, Johann Siegwald Dahl, Carl Gustav Carus and many more of the leading artists.
The creation of the portrait is documented in the memoires of baroness Christine Stampe (Rigmor Stampe (ed.), “Baronesse Stampes Erindringer om Thorvaldsen”, 1912, p. 124). Christine Stampe tells that Thorvaldsen and the Stampe family stayed at Maxen Castle for about a week in 1841 together with the two painters. Friederike Serre suggested that Thorvaldsen had his portrait painted by Raden Saleh. According to Stampe, Saleh did not perform well enough and Dahl took over and finished the portrait. Saleh was discontented and painted his own version of the portrait, of more inferior quality than Dahl's, Stampe recollects. Christine Stampe also recounts that Thorvaldsen himself worked on the relief of Cupid and Psyche, while the portrait was executed. The relief is signed and dated Albert Thorvaldsen/Maxen d. 17. Juni 1841, just as the portrait, which is dated d. 17. Juni (17th of June).
The present work is a real rarity. Not only is it an unusual co-operation between the two different painters from different parts of the world, also, there are very few portraits by Dahl. Besides, the painting has had a hidden existence and never made it to the Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of I. C. Dahl by Marie Lødrup Bang. At some point it left the Serre family, entered the world of art trade and ended up in Aarhus with business manager Øberg Pedersen and later the Kruuse family till now. Thorvaldsens Museum was alerted twice in the 1920ies regarding the work, first in 1922 when the portrait was for sale a gallery in Dresden and again in 1924, when Øberg Pedersen tried to sell the painting to the museum. No deal was made and from then on the work has been privately owned, without anybody knowing it's whereabouts, and only surfaced again in 2012.
Please note: The item is subject to the Anti-Money Laundering Act. In the event of a hammer price of DKK 50,000 or more, including buyer’s premium, the buyer must submit a copy of a valid photo ID and proof of address in order to collect the item.
Paintings and drawings, 26 February 2013