Coloured chalk and wash. Size of sheet: 41.5 x 33.5 cm. Inscribed upper right: 39. Stamped with the mark of the Tischbein Estate verso.

PROVENANCE

The Dukes of Oldenburg (Tischbein estate, bearing the collector’s stamp).

The sitter’s physiognomy of this vibrant pastel corresponds closely to that of Ernestine Henriette Tischbein (1806 – 1884), the second daughter of the artist. Very much inspired by images of the antique, it closely relates to the painting of her in frontal view in Kassel. The strict, clear facial features and the ambitious hairstyle with nodes on the forehead and the side of falling, twisted lock of hair, are the same as in the painting (Kunsthalle Kassel, Inv. Nr.: GK 853 (1875/1212)).

Our drawing belongs to a group, all originally kept in the collection of the Dukes of Oldenburg. Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig (1755 – 1829) did not only acquired in 1804 not only Tischbein's painting collection in 1804 (which now forms the foundation of the Old Masters Picture Gallery in Augusteum), but he also appointed the artist in 1808 as court painter and as the first gallery-inspector of the Grand Ducal paintings gallery.

Johann Heinrich Tischbein will always be remembered as the very close friend and travelling companion of Johann Wolfgang Goethe. The best-known images by him are from Tischbein’s hand. The artist is today known as the ‘Goethe-Tischbein’.