Lot Essay
The painting depicts a tragic episode in the history of Prussia during the Napoleonic era: the death of the Prince Louis Ferdinand. The Prince, a cousin of King Frederick the Great, had been a central figure in the cultural life of Berlin and in those places to which his military career brought him. Besides his courage, charm and good looks, he was also admired for his musical compositions which won him the friendship of Beethoven. He was a fierce opponent of Napoleon. In order to overturn the humiliating Peace of Luneville which the Prussian King Frederick William III and the government had signed, he organised a campaign against the French. This initiative led to a series of battles fought in the border area of Thüringen and Saxony, which resulted in a devastating defeat for the Prussian-Saxonian alliance. During the first confrontation near Saalfeld on the 10th of October, 1806 the Prince was killed by the sword of a French Hussar. His body, stripped of his uniform by French soldiers, remained with some 1800 dead compatriots on the battlefield. His badge, plundered by French soldiers, was later recognised by Count Mensdorff-Pouilly, a French general who had met the Prince in Berlin during the preceding summer. He showed with tears in his eyes this evidence of the Prince's death to the inhabitants of the Saalfeld castle where the Prince had spent his last night. Subsequently, Mensdorff helped to identify the body of Louis Ferdinand. The corpse was transported to the castle and subsequently to the Johanniskirche in the centre of the city, where it was embalmed and placed before the altar. One of the ladies-in-waiting at the castle, Amalie von Uttenhove, recorded in her diary (and afterwards in a poem) how she went to the church in the company of a flower girl and how she placed a laurel wreath on the Prince's head with the lament "Ach - nicht den Lorbeerkranz zum Siegerlohne, Es war des Märtyrers errung'ne Krone". ("Alas! not the laurel of victory, but a martyr's crown"), see E. Kleßmann, Prinz Louis Ferdinad von Preußen: Gestalt einer Zeitenwende, 1972, p.290f.
It is Amalie's action together with the flower girl that the painter chose to depict. It is likely that Count Mensdorff is among the officers; the other soldiers depicted are probably the "fremde Krieger" that were present according to Amalie's poem. The death of Louis Ferdinand was mourned on all sides. Even Napoleon was moved by the "glorious death" of his foe and reminded his soldiers in a military bulletin that the Prussian Prince died a death every soldier should wish for. Many poems and musical pieces were composed to commemorate the death of the patriotic Prince. A poem in a book by Carl Friedrich Benkowitz, entitled Geschichte des Angriffs, der Blockierung und Übergabe von Glogau (1807) called on artists to depict the scene in the church in Saalfeld. "Auf, erwacht ihr Künstler, und bildet die heilige Szene" (Wake up thou artists and depict this holy scene), see E. Kleßman, op. cit., p.297.
At the biennial exhibition of the Berlin Academy of 1810 there were three artists who had responded to Benkowitz's call. Besides an allegory on his death by Johann Cristoph Frisch and a design for a monument by Heinrich Stürmer, the young academy student Wilhem Herbig from Postdam evoked the sad moment of Amalie von Uttenhove before the Prince's corpse. Herbig may well have felt deeply involved with the sentiment surrounding the sacrifice of the Prince's death. In 1813 and 1814 he volunteered as a soldier the campaigns against Napoleon, fighting - this time victoriously for the cause Louis Ferdinand had died for.
Das Gemälde stellt einen tragischen Augenblick in der preussischen Geschichte unter Napoleon dar. Louis Ferdinand von Preussen, eine Gegner Napoleons, fiel in der ersten Schlacht seines Feldzugs gegen die Franzosen bei Saalfeld 1806. Nachdem Graf Mensdorff die Leiche auf dem Schlachtfeld identifiziert hatte, wurde sie in der Johanniskirche in Saalfeld aufgebahrt und von einer der Hofdamen mit einem Lorbeerkranz geschmückt.
It is Amalie's action together with the flower girl that the painter chose to depict. It is likely that Count Mensdorff is among the officers; the other soldiers depicted are probably the "fremde Krieger" that were present according to Amalie's poem. The death of Louis Ferdinand was mourned on all sides. Even Napoleon was moved by the "glorious death" of his foe and reminded his soldiers in a military bulletin that the Prussian Prince died a death every soldier should wish for. Many poems and musical pieces were composed to commemorate the death of the patriotic Prince. A poem in a book by Carl Friedrich Benkowitz, entitled Geschichte des Angriffs, der Blockierung und Übergabe von Glogau (1807) called on artists to depict the scene in the church in Saalfeld. "Auf, erwacht ihr Künstler, und bildet die heilige Szene" (Wake up thou artists and depict this holy scene), see E. Kleßman, op. cit., p.297.
At the biennial exhibition of the Berlin Academy of 1810 there were three artists who had responded to Benkowitz's call. Besides an allegory on his death by Johann Cristoph Frisch and a design for a monument by Heinrich Stürmer, the young academy student Wilhem Herbig from Postdam evoked the sad moment of Amalie von Uttenhove before the Prince's corpse. Herbig may well have felt deeply involved with the sentiment surrounding the sacrifice of the Prince's death. In 1813 and 1814 he volunteered as a soldier the campaigns against Napoleon, fighting - this time victoriously for the cause Louis Ferdinand had died for.
Das Gemälde stellt einen tragischen Augenblick in der preussischen Geschichte unter Napoleon dar. Louis Ferdinand von Preussen, eine Gegner Napoleons, fiel in der ersten Schlacht seines Feldzugs gegen die Franzosen bei Saalfeld 1806. Nachdem Graf Mensdorff die Leiche auf dem Schlachtfeld identifiziert hatte, wurde sie in der Johanniskirche in Saalfeld aufgebahrt und von einer der Hofdamen mit einem Lorbeerkranz geschmückt.