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Lot Essay
Drawn in 1854, the present drawing is connected with a series of frescoes illustrating Brentano's tale painted by Steinle in the house of Dr. Karl von Guaitaschen in Frankfurt, known through a series of cartoons, A.M. von Steinle, op. cit., 1910, nos. 319-325. The composition of the panel illustrating the episode shown here is, however, different, and despite the light squaring the Bodmer sheet may have been intended as a presentation drawing.
Clemens Brentano's Märchen von dem Rhein and Müller Radlauf (The Fairy Tale of the Rhine and Radlauf the Miller) was composed in 1810, but was only published after his death in 1842, G. Görres ed., Das Märchen des Clemens Brentano, Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1846, pp. 1-159. The story opens with the engagement of Prince Rattenkahl of Trier, seen on the left of the Bodmer drawing, with the daughter of the Queen of Mainz, seen on the right. The engagement, contracted on two boats in the middle of the Rhine at Bingen, is wrecked by a fight between the State Cat of Mainz and the mascot of Trier, a rat. The panels at the bottom of the drawing show the bearded head of Father Rhine separating the beautiful Princess Amelaya of Mainz at the prow of her ship, and Radlauf the Miller who has seen the Princess in a dream and saves her from drowning during the fight between the animals. The central scene shows the nymphs of the Red and White Main, attended by nymphs of the tributaries of the Main and the Rhine, arriving to restore order after the series of misadventures caused by the disastrous failed betrothal. Through the intervention of Father Rhine, Radlauf is crowned rightful King of Trier, with Amelaya as his Queen.
Clemens Brentano's Märchen von dem Rhein and Müller Radlauf (The Fairy Tale of the Rhine and Radlauf the Miller) was composed in 1810, but was only published after his death in 1842, G. Görres ed., Das Märchen des Clemens Brentano, Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1846, pp. 1-159. The story opens with the engagement of Prince Rattenkahl of Trier, seen on the left of the Bodmer drawing, with the daughter of the Queen of Mainz, seen on the right. The engagement, contracted on two boats in the middle of the Rhine at Bingen, is wrecked by a fight between the State Cat of Mainz and the mascot of Trier, a rat. The panels at the bottom of the drawing show the bearded head of Father Rhine separating the beautiful Princess Amelaya of Mainz at the prow of her ship, and Radlauf the Miller who has seen the Princess in a dream and saves her from drowning during the fight between the animals. The central scene shows the nymphs of the Red and White Main, attended by nymphs of the tributaries of the Main and the Rhine, arriving to restore order after the series of misadventures caused by the disastrous failed betrothal. Through the intervention of Father Rhine, Radlauf is crowned rightful King of Trier, with Amelaya as his Queen.