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rheinsbergAdolph Menzel, one of the most respected mid 19th century German painters, had first tackled Frederician subjects when illustrating Franz Kugler's "Geschichte Friedrichs des Großen". This in turn inspired him to try a cycle of paintings "around the character of the great King" as he put it. Only a few of those paintings depicted singular events, like the one showing Fritz meeting Joseph at Neisse. The others aim at recreating "everyday" situations, which is why the two most popular ones are Tafelrunde in Sanssouci and Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci. Only the later still exists; the orignal "Tafelrunde" was destroyed in 1945, courtesy of WWII, though copies and photos were made before that happened, on which the numerous reproductions are based. Both paintings subsequently became iconic, and chances are that if you've watched a movie featuring Frederick the Great past the Crown Prince stage, the set designers sooner or later try to recreate the Menzel paintings.
Now, Menzel of course was a child of the 19th century who hadn't seen any of the people he depicted alive. His painting of the Frederician tableround at Sanssouci was in fact finished exactly a hundred years after Voltaire's three-years-interval in Prussia began, in 1850. But Menzel had already already done his research for the Kugler illustrations, and since many of the people featuring in his paintings had had their portraits done, he had plenty of material to work with. This said, he wanted to achieve more than just illustrate, he did go for an interpretation of the people and their relationships. Take the flute concert:
To quote the German wiki entry: At the center of the painting is Frederick the Great, the flute at the base, the music stand in front of him lit by two candles. He wears a wig, a long, open, Prussian blue and red lined skirt and soldier's gauntlets. He is accompanied by a man on the harpsichord and a string instrument group. With the exception of the harpsichordist and cellist, all the men present, including the men in the audience, remain standing to pay homage to the king.
The painting is divided into two different halves by Friedrich's music stand, which is placed in the center of the picture. In each of the two halves there are eight people, five of whom are standing and three sitting.
On the right of the picture is an older listener, not looking at the king, but looking at the floor. It is the flute teacher Frederick the Great, Johann Joachim Quantz, who seems to focus all his attention on the sounds of music. His attitude is paternal, but he does not pay full respect to the king because he leans thoughtfully against a larger painting that hangs on the right wall. The musician with the violin on the far right is concert master Franz Benda.
The listeners on the left side of the picture can also be clearly identified. In one of his preliminary studies on the picture, Menzel revealed the names of the depicted. The eye-catching fat man with the old-fashioned wig is Count Gustav Adolf von Gotter, a bon vivant, described as highly irritating by contemporaries, yet a favorite of the king who always knew how to use his advantage. Jakob Friedrich Freiherr von Bielfeld is standing behind him with a delighted expression. He was one of the admirers of Frederick the Great who actually participated in his concerts because of the music (and not just because of the honor of being invited). The mathematician and geographer Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, however, looks bored at the ceiling. He is one of those invited guests who seem less interested in the music.
(Comment by yours truly: Probably wonders how long before Voltaire publishes his next pamphlet.)
In the back of the painting, Frederick the Great's favorite sister, Wilhelmine of Bayreuth, sits on a red-upholstered sofa.
There is no stranger at the harpsichord either: it is Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He served the king for 28 years. In the picture you can see, however, that he doesn't think much of the musical skill of his employer. He turns his face to the flute player and seems to be waiting for his cue, but a closer look reveals that his eyelids are half closed and his facial expression is haughty and almost annoyed.
The old lady who sits behind the music stand in the middle of the picture is Countess Camas. Wilhelmine's youngest sister, Amalie of Prussia, who composed pieces of music like the monarch, and a lady-in-waiting sit in the audience on Wilhelmine's right and directly behind the King. The court conductor Carl Heinrich Graun is behind the princesses. The man in the background is Friedrich's friend Chasôt.
Incidentally, if you're wondering: all the ladies were actually at some point at the generally women-less Sanssouci. Note that the Queen, Elisabeth Christine, is nowhere in sight, which is historically correct. What Menzel based his suspicion that Maupertuis wasn't too keen on the music or that Bach Fils was somewhat blasé on, I don't know, but it does enliven the painting that not everyone is depicted static and equal.
On to the tableround:
If you're wondering who is who: Friedrich II in the middle in the back turns to Voltaire, who is sitting in the second chair to the left of the king and having a conversation with Algarotti across the table. Between the two sits General von Stille, on the far left Lord Marshal Georg Keith, on the right of the king sits the Marquis d`Argens, then Algarotti, Field Marshal James Keith, Count Rothenburg and La Mettrie.
Like I said, Menzel wasn't trying to depict a specific meeting here, but wanted to give a general impression of the famous soupers at their high point (i.e. shortly after Voltaire had joined the Sanssouci circle and before the Fritz/Voltaire implosion started). Note that in this one, Maupertuis isnt anywhere in sight. I'm not sure the brothers Keith would necessarily have participated in the tablerounds at this point, but Menzel wanted to show the mixture of the art and the military that characterized Fritz. Menzel's mid-19th-century take is of course an idealizing one in all paintings, but note what is missing in a century that's increasingly nationalistic and rewrites Friedrich II into a nationalist. This demanded considerable contortions. The simultanously appearing monumental Preuss biography in several volumes kept reassuring its 19th century readers that just because the man prefered to speak French and was majorly into French literature, he really despised "die Welschen" (deliberately old fashioned expression for all Latin-derived Europeans en vogue with 19th century nationalists) and was the most German of Germans, etc., etc. Menzel, by contrast, doesn't play that game. Rothenburg and Stille are the only Germans on the table (other than Fritz himself); otherwise you have three Frenchmen, an Italian and two Scots. Which is an accurate reflection of the multinational company Friedrich kept.
Menzel's only take on a Frederician battle picture, which burned in 1945 along with the table round, is equally atypical for the nationalist 19th century, both in the choice of subject and the depiction: it's The battle of Hochkirch, which was lost by Fritz entirely due to his own fault, since he was explicitly told by his generals not to have the army take the disadvantageous position it did. One of his brother-in-law as well as James Keith died in this battle. (As Wilhelmine died the same day as well, this officially qualifies as one of his worst days ever.) Menzel's painting does not put the King in the foreground but the soldiers; the mood is one of desperation. Unsurprisingly, this was the least popular of Menzel's Friedrich-II-paintings.
Now, Menzel of course was a child of the 19th century who hadn't seen any of the people he depicted alive. His painting of the Frederician tableround at Sanssouci was in fact finished exactly a hundred years after Voltaire's three-years-interval in Prussia began, in 1850. But Menzel had already already done his research for the Kugler illustrations, and since many of the people featuring in his paintings had had their portraits done, he had plenty of material to work with. This said, he wanted to achieve more than just illustrate, he did go for an interpretation of the people and their relationships. Take the flute concert:
To quote the German wiki entry: At the center of the painting is Frederick the Great, the flute at the base, the music stand in front of him lit by two candles. He wears a wig, a long, open, Prussian blue and red lined skirt and soldier's gauntlets. He is accompanied by a man on the harpsichord and a string instrument group. With the exception of the harpsichordist and cellist, all the men present, including the men in the audience, remain standing to pay homage to the king.
The painting is divided into two different halves by Friedrich's music stand, which is placed in the center of the picture. In each of the two halves there are eight people, five of whom are standing and three sitting.
On the right of the picture is an older listener, not looking at the king, but looking at the floor. It is the flute teacher Frederick the Great, Johann Joachim Quantz, who seems to focus all his attention on the sounds of music. His attitude is paternal, but he does not pay full respect to the king because he leans thoughtfully against a larger painting that hangs on the right wall. The musician with the violin on the far right is concert master Franz Benda.
The listeners on the left side of the picture can also be clearly identified. In one of his preliminary studies on the picture, Menzel revealed the names of the depicted. The eye-catching fat man with the old-fashioned wig is Count Gustav Adolf von Gotter, a bon vivant, described as highly irritating by contemporaries, yet a favorite of the king who always knew how to use his advantage. Jakob Friedrich Freiherr von Bielfeld is standing behind him with a delighted expression. He was one of the admirers of Frederick the Great who actually participated in his concerts because of the music (and not just because of the honor of being invited). The mathematician and geographer Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, however, looks bored at the ceiling. He is one of those invited guests who seem less interested in the music.
(Comment by yours truly: Probably wonders how long before Voltaire publishes his next pamphlet.)
In the back of the painting, Frederick the Great's favorite sister, Wilhelmine of Bayreuth, sits on a red-upholstered sofa.
There is no stranger at the harpsichord either: it is Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He served the king for 28 years. In the picture you can see, however, that he doesn't think much of the musical skill of his employer. He turns his face to the flute player and seems to be waiting for his cue, but a closer look reveals that his eyelids are half closed and his facial expression is haughty and almost annoyed.
The old lady who sits behind the music stand in the middle of the picture is Countess Camas. Wilhelmine's youngest sister, Amalie of Prussia, who composed pieces of music like the monarch, and a lady-in-waiting sit in the audience on Wilhelmine's right and directly behind the King. The court conductor Carl Heinrich Graun is behind the princesses. The man in the background is Friedrich's friend Chasôt.
Incidentally, if you're wondering: all the ladies were actually at some point at the generally women-less Sanssouci. Note that the Queen, Elisabeth Christine, is nowhere in sight, which is historically correct. What Menzel based his suspicion that Maupertuis wasn't too keen on the music or that Bach Fils was somewhat blasé on, I don't know, but it does enliven the painting that not everyone is depicted static and equal.
On to the tableround:
If you're wondering who is who: Friedrich II in the middle in the back turns to Voltaire, who is sitting in the second chair to the left of the king and having a conversation with Algarotti across the table. Between the two sits General von Stille, on the far left Lord Marshal Georg Keith, on the right of the king sits the Marquis d`Argens, then Algarotti, Field Marshal James Keith, Count Rothenburg and La Mettrie.
Like I said, Menzel wasn't trying to depict a specific meeting here, but wanted to give a general impression of the famous soupers at their high point (i.e. shortly after Voltaire had joined the Sanssouci circle and before the Fritz/Voltaire implosion started). Note that in this one, Maupertuis isnt anywhere in sight. I'm not sure the brothers Keith would necessarily have participated in the tablerounds at this point, but Menzel wanted to show the mixture of the art and the military that characterized Fritz. Menzel's mid-19th-century take is of course an idealizing one in all paintings, but note what is missing in a century that's increasingly nationalistic and rewrites Friedrich II into a nationalist. This demanded considerable contortions. The simultanously appearing monumental Preuss biography in several volumes kept reassuring its 19th century readers that just because the man prefered to speak French and was majorly into French literature, he really despised "die Welschen" (deliberately old fashioned expression for all Latin-derived Europeans en vogue with 19th century nationalists) and was the most German of Germans, etc., etc. Menzel, by contrast, doesn't play that game. Rothenburg and Stille are the only Germans on the table (other than Fritz himself); otherwise you have three Frenchmen, an Italian and two Scots. Which is an accurate reflection of the multinational company Friedrich kept.
Menzel's only take on a Frederician battle picture, which burned in 1945 along with the table round, is equally atypical for the nationalist 19th century, both in the choice of subject and the depiction: it's The battle of Hochkirch, which was lost by Fritz entirely due to his own fault, since he was explicitly told by his generals not to have the army take the disadvantageous position it did. One of his brother-in-law as well as James Keith died in this battle. (As Wilhelmine died the same day as well, this officially qualifies as one of his worst days ever.) Menzel's painting does not put the King in the foreground but the soldiers; the mood is one of desperation. Unsurprisingly, this was the least popular of Menzel's Friedrich-II-paintings.
