JOHAN WILHELM CARL WAHLBOM (KALMAR 1810-1858 LONDON)
JOHAN WILHELM CARL WAHLBOM (KALMAR 1810-1858 LONDON)
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JOHAN WILHELM CARL WAHLBOM (KALMAR 1810-1858 LONDON)

The finding of the body of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden after the battle of Lützen

Details
JOHAN WILHELM CARL WAHLBOM (KALMAR 1810-1858 LONDON)
The finding of the body of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden after the battle of Lützen
with inscription ‘Entwürf zu einem Gemälde/ Tod Gustav Adolfs/ Prof. F. Goethe [these last three words partly erased] †/ Nachlass 1903’ (recto), and ‘OriginalEntwürf zu einem Gemälde (Tod König/ Gustav Adolfs v. Schweden/ Preis 5000.-// F. Goethe. Professor, bekannt […])/ Historien und […]/ […] Maler Direktor der Kunst/ schule in Karlsruhe./ † in Berlin 1903./Nachlass.-’ (verso)
black chalk, stumping, graphite, graphite framing lines, on gray paper
15 x 21 ¾ in. (37.7 x 52 cm)
Provenance
F. Goethe (died 1903?), Karlsruhe and Berlin (according to the inscriptions on the drawing).

Brought to you by

Giada Damen, Ph.D.
Giada Damen, Ph.D. AVP, Specialist, Head of Sale

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Lot Essay

The drawing is an elaborate but early design for Wahlbom’s famous painting of the same subject, dated 1855, in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (fig. 1; inv. NM 1242). The composition also differs from an earlier work depicting the death of one of King Gustav II Adolf (1594-1632), a lithograph from 1836-1837 (an impression can be found in the same collection, inv. NMTiG 3407). His death occurred at one of the major battles in the Thirty Years’ War, which took place near Leipzig. Wahlbom treated the sovereign’s death in a second painting at the Nationalmuseum (inv. NM 1028).

Fig. 1. Johan Wilhelm Carl Wahlbom, The finding of the body of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden after the battle of Lützen. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.© Viktor Fordell / Nationalmuseum.

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