You are bidding on one handwritten, signed letter of Baltic officer and painter Gerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern (1794-1865), friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and, with Ludwig Emil Grimm, founder of the Willingshausen painters' colony.
DatedSachsenhausen (today's district of Frankfurt am Main), 24. July 1845.
Aimed at Theresia Maria Dominica von Spaur, b. Giraud (born 5. August 1799 in Rome, died. 27. March 1873 in Innsbruck), who was currently in Weißendorf. -- She was the wife of the Bavarian diplomat Karl von Spaur (1794-1854), aEnvoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Holy See in Rome, widow of the archaeologist Sir Edward Dodwell (1767-1832) and niece of the poet Giovanni Giraud (1776-1834).
The recipient's sister is mentioned, Countess Therese Caroline von und zu Guttenberg, née. from Spaur (1795-1879), maid of honor of the Royal Theresa Order and widow of the ambassador Franz Ludwig Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg (1774-1825).
Excerpts: "My dear friend! Finally the letter from you yesterday. Of course, this long silence also meant really bad things, and I can tell from your words how attacked and worried you still are! – God let everything be okay. [...] What you write to me about your sister makes me very anxious too - [...] if the pain in my head just disappears soon! The damage may have seemed insignificant at first - but why has it become so noticeable over all this time? Oh, don't forget to consult experienced doctors! The dear, excellent Mrs. von Guttenberg's need to know so terribly concerns me deeply and I can imagine your worry - which God may soon take away! Oh, in that case, how deserted you are in the country! [...] And you, poor dear friend! what have you endured and how must you be feeling. [...] The sad awareness of one's own inadequacy on Allen sides, a fruit of the years and consequences of suffering, what an invaluable conviction it commands! The realization that strength, life and happiness can only be found in God alone. [...] But that is the essence of love, add! [...] Today we are expecting my dear sister from Baden. She can only stay a few days, goes to the seaside resort in Ostend and this fall to Livonia. Today we are also expecting Rackwitz, who will receive the king here the day after tomorrow. Our little Christof, who had a beginning of nervous fever, is now well again, still weak."
This means his son Christoph von Reutern (1839-1859), who died early in Düsseldorf as a budding portrait painter.
Signed"With all my heart, your loyal friend Reutern."
With notes from the recipient: "30. Julie received, 9. 7ber [=September] answered."
Scope:three text pages and one address page (27.3 x 21.7 cm); the end of the letter written in the margin of the address page.
Format (folded): 9.3 x 14.6 cm.
Posted; with postmarks (from Frankfurt and Würzburg{?}) and handwritten tax note.
Condition:Paper slightly stained, with a 6 cm long cut at the bottom edge, the seal split in two by the letter opening. bplease note the pictures too!
Internal note: Kiefer 23-10 (6) folder Willlha Adel autograph autograph art military
OverGerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern, the son Christoph von Reutern and the recipient's husband (source: wikipedia):
Gerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern (*6. July July / 17. July 1794 greg. at Gut Rösthof near Walk in Livonia; † 22. March 1865 in Frankfurt am Main) was a Baltic officer and painter, friend of Goethe and, with Ludwig Emil Grimm, founder of the Willingshausen painter's colony.
Life: Von Reutern was a member of the Baltic noble von Reutern family. He was the youngest of four sons of chamberlain Christoph Herrmann von Reutern and his wife Charlotte, née von Fischbach. He received his first artistic instructions from a private tutor and from the age of twelve at the Petri School in Saint Petersburg. At the age of 15, he came to the University of Dorpat to study military science.
Military career: In 1811 he joined the “Alexander Hussar Regiment”, which was under the command of his eldest brother. In the fall of 1812 he became a cornet in the Life Guard Hussar Regiment and marched towards Silesia in 1813. As a Russian cavalry lieutenant, he took part in the Russian campaigns from 1813 to 1815 and the battles of Dresden, Culm and Leipzig. At 16. In October 1813 he was critically injured in Wachau by a gunshot wound in the right shoulder, so that he could only be saved by amputating his arm. As he began to recover in Leipzig in March 1814, he made his first attempts at drawing with his left hand, which consisted of portraits that he made from nature. After fully recovering, he wanted to continue his military career. However, a renewed inflammation of the wound forced him to stay in Weimar and wait for it to heal.
In the summer of 1814 he made his first acquaintance with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who encouraged his interest in painting and with whom he maintained a constant correspondence. He traveled to Baden-Baden to cure the inflammation and followed the army to Russia in the fall of that year. At the beginning of 1815 he became adjutant to Field Marshal Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly in Warsaw, whom he accompanied to Paris because Napoleon had escaped from Elba. In late autumn he went on a long vacation home. Since he was now of age (or of age), he received the Ajasch estate as his father's inheritance. He stayed here until 1817. He spent the years 1818 and 1819 in Berlin and Kassel, where he devoted himself to scientific studies. In Kassel he became friends with Joseph von Radowitz and repeatedly met Goethe and Schiller's widow on trips to Weimar and Jena. He continued his studies in natural sciences at the University of Heidelberg until the end of 1819. He then returned to Saint Petersburg to say goodbye to the army with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Artistic work: In February 1820 he became engaged to Miss Charlotte von Schwertzell zu Willingshausen in Kassel and went on a long trip to Italy with her before getting married on the 20th. married her in August of that year. Initially he intended to manage the inherited property. However, his health did not allow this, so he turned back to the natural sciences. In 1823 his doctors ordered him to stay in a milder climate, which led him to Geneva and Bad Ems. During these years he made numerous drawings with pen and also tried his hand at erasing. Since 1828 he increasingly turned to watercolor painting, which he had learned from Gabriel Lory in Bern in 1824. He then studied painting with Ludwig Emil Grimm, Justus Wilhelm Karl Glinzer and Johann Martin von Rohden at the Kassel Art Academy. Many of his watercolors were created in Willingshausen, where Ludwig Grimm visited him several times. Their acquaintance is considered the founding hour of the Willingshausen painters' colony. Both discovered the Schwalm genre and the Schwalm traditional costumes. In 1833 an eye disease prevented him from working for two years and he moved to Düsseldorf in November 1834 to learn oil painting under Schadow's tutelage. He soon became a private student of Theodor Hildebrandt, an assistant teacher at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. In 1837 he created two of his own compositions in oil, a page in a medieval costume and a girl curiously opening a treasure chest. He sent both portraits to Emperor Nicholas I, who awarded him the title of imperial court painter and appointed him painter of the imperial Russian family with an honorary pension.
Von Reutern created the pen drawing Huteichen in 1829, which he gave to his patron Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The drawing is now in the Goethehaus in Weimar. In 1841 he brought his friend Jakob Fürchtegott Dielmann with him to Willingshausen, whose work contributed significantly to Willingshausen's importance as a place to study. Von Reutern, however, then lived alternately in Russia, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
In 1844 he moved to Frankfurt, where he set up studios for painters in the later Villa Metzler that he and his family lived in. In Frankfurt his circle of acquaintances included Philipp Veit. His grave in Frankfurt's South Cemetery no longer exists today; the gravestones of him, his wife and those of his son Christoph, who died in Düsseldorf in 1859 as an aspiring portrait painter, were brought to the mourning hall. His wife died in 1854. His daughter Elisabeth von Reutern (1821–1856) married Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky in 1841. His own health deteriorated noticeably. In the spring of 1864 he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on one side. He died in March of that year.
Appreciation
Iron Cross
1813: Pour le Merite
Order of Saint Vladimir
In Willingshausen there is a museum named after Gerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern.
Working in museums
Isaac's sacrifice
Georg Schäfer Museum, Schweinfurt
Schwalm Museum, Ziegenhain
New Gallery, Kassel
Willingshausen Peasant Woman with Sleeping Child (1843) Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1849) Hermitage, Saint Petersburg
Goethe House Weimar
Museum Malerstübchen Gerhardt-von-Reutern-Haus, Willingshausen
Exhibitions
1935: Large art exhibition, Kunstverein Kassel
Christoph von Reutern (*29. June 1839 in Düsseldorf; † 6. January 1859 ibid) was a German portrait painter of the Düsseldorf School.
Life: Christoph von Reutern was a scion of the Baltic noble family Reuters. His father was a retired Russian cavalry lieutenant colonel. D. Gerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern, his mother was Charlotte, née von Schwertzell (1797–1854), daughter of the retired captain. D. Georg Ludwig Wilhelm von Schwertzell, Lord of Willingshausen (1756–1833). In 1841, through his sister Elisabeth von Reutern (1821–1856), he became the brother-in-law of the Russian poet Wassili Andreevich Zhukovsky.
When Christoph von Reutern was born in Düsseldorf in 1839, his father was trained as a painter by Wilhelm von Schadow. Christoph von Reutern himself was initially a student of his father in Frankfurt am Main, where the family had moved in 1844. After further artistic training with Edward von Steinle, he moved to Düsseldorf in the mid-1850s. There he enrolled to study painting at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. From 1855 he attended the 2. Painting class under Theodor Hildebrandt, who had taught his father years before. In 1856 he received anatomy lessons from Heinrich Mücke and art history lessons from Andreas Müller. In 1857 he attended Karl Müller's class for historical and genre painters, and in 1858 he attended Karl Ferdinand Sohn's painting class, who rated his performance as “very good”. Christoph von Reutern died in Düsseldorf at the age of 19. His body was brought to Frankfurt am Main and buried there.
A portrait of his father painted by Christoph von Reutern was at an anniversary exhibition in Riga in 1901.
Count Karl von Spaur (*4. January 1794 in Wetzlar; † 26. October 1854 in Florence) was a German diplomat in the service of the Kingdom of Bavaria. As an envoy to the Holy See, he was saved by Pius IX. famous.
Life: Count Spaur was the second of four children of the South Tyrolean Count Joseph Philipp von Spaur, a lawyer at the Imperial Chamber Court, and his second wife Henriette Baroness von Franckenstein (1771–1849). Karl's half-brother Friedrich sold the Winkel property near Merano in 1812 and acquired land in Igling and Roggenburg in Swabia.
Karl von Spaur initially took “philosophical teaching courses” at the University of Salzburg. From 1808 he studied law and camera studies at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, from 1810 at the University of Landshut and from November 1812 to Easter 1814 at the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen. In Landshut he became a member of the Franconia regional team and - like some Franconians - a member of the Corps Baruthia in Erlangen (1812). In the wars of liberation he fought in 1814 as a lieutenant in the (volunteer) Jäger battalion of the Illerkreis, and in 1815 in the Royal. Bavarian 6. Chevaulegers Regiment “Prince Albrecht of Prussia”.
Resigned in 1818, he entered the diplomatic service of the Crown of Bavaria. After being secretary of the embassy at their foreign missions in Berlin and Vienna, he was sent as legation councilor to the Federal Assembly of the German Confederation in Frankfurt am Main.
In 1833 he became chargé d'affaires to the Holy See. In the same year he married Therese verw. Dodwell b. Countess Giraud from Roman nobility, “one of the most remarkable women in Rome due to her beauty, her spirit and her nobility”. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Holy See since 1838, he enjoyed the full confidence of Pope Gregory XVI. and Pius IX. as well as the Bavarian kings Ludwig I and Maximilian II. Joseph. At the same time, he was accredited to the Sardinian court in Turin in 1850 and to the court of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in Naples in 1851.
Family: Spaur married on the 21st. September 1833 in Rome Comtesse Theresia Maria Dominica Giraud (* 5. August 1799; † 27. March 1873), the widow of the archaeologist Sir Edward Dodwell (* 1767; † 14. May 1832) and niece of the poet Giovanni Giraud. The couple had two sons, one of whom died young:
Maximilian (* 5. July 1834; † 14. June 1896) ⚭ 1861 Baroness Mathilde Agathe von Verschuer (* 16. June 1841; † 6. September 1872)
Escape helper:When the Italian March Revolution broke out in 1848, the (for Metternich) “liberal” Pius IX. in distress. Spaur and his wife helped the disguised Pope on the 24th. November 1848 to escape to Gaeta and on November 4th September 1849 to Portici near Naples. When the revolution was crushed by French, Austrian, Spanish and Neapolitan troops, Spaur returned on January 4th after 17 months of exile. Returned to Rome in April 1850. Eight days later Pius followed in triumph. Countess Spaur's Italian account of the historic undertaking has been translated into French and German.
Seriously ill and on leave, Spaur died in Florence on his way home to Bavaria at the age of 60.