Caroline by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein
Caroline, original oil portrait by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein 1798 (Otto Cramer Family Archives, courtesy of Martin Reulecke). Tischbein began this and the color portrait of Auguste during a visit to Weimar and Jena in the spring of 1798, then finished them in Dessau.
Wilhelm Scherer points out that “the color of her eyes was blue, as we happen to read in one letter in which she calls herself the blue-eyed Caroline“.
Sabine Schierhoff, specialist in the clothing of this period, remarks concerning this portrait:
“She is doubtless wearing her best outfit. A white dress, naturally, in the style of antiquity of the sort that had recently become fashionable, with a high waist and a simple yet refined cut, adorned solely with a narrow belt (such developed from the chemise-style of the early 1790s). After the considerable pomp of Rococo, this style does homage to the essentials: the intellect, spirit, and personality should shine. And yet the choice of fine fabrics clearly betrays the other contemporary ideal, namely, sentimentality. The necktie as an accessory to what is otherwise an extremely feminine ensemble allows a hint of striving after the masculine ideal of education and cultivation without any implication of wanting to surpass it. Her hair is styled after the fashion of antiquity and adorned with ribbons, i.e., naturally, without a peruke. And though not visible in the portrait, ladies no longer wore the restrictive rococo stays, but at most short stays with only a few (whale)bones to enhance posture and evoke a silhouette reminiscent of antiquity. And finally the fashionable shawl, a large, colored scarf, here of silk, that could change one’s appearance in an instant. These shawls were quite large (usually ca. 1.20x3m) and were ‘casually’ draped, albeit not so casually, since they were an important accessory, and could be rather expensive as well. Solely the edges were generally set off by their color; the broader and more embellished the periphery, the more precious the shawl. Rich colors became increasingly popular because they contrasted so handsomely with the white color of the dress.”
Woman posing for a portrait, 1804
Representative scene portraying a woman sitting for a portrait at the time (1804). The artist says to the woman, “This, my dear Maria, is just how you must also look tomorrow!” To which the woman responds, “Well then, my good Julius, make sure to receive me just as cordially as today.”
(Scene from the story by W. G. Becker, “Der Maler,” Taschenbuch zum geselligen Vergnügen 14 [1804], 1–61; illustration from the next issue, Taschenbuch zum geselligen Vergnügen 15 [1805].)
Caroline by Tischbein
A contemporary drawing (copy) of the preceding portrait of Caroline by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein; acquired at auction by the Romantikerhaus museum in Jena.
Drawing Silhouettes
Here an illustration of how silhouettes — an extremely popular art form at the time — were produced.
(Johann Eleazar Schenau [Zeissig], L´origine de la peinture ou les portraits à la mode [1645–1784]; Herzog August Bibliothek; Museums./Signatur Graph. A2:149.)
Caroline: Undated Silhouette as a Young Woman
(Otto Cramer Family Archives, courtesy of Martin Reulecke.)
Caroline: Undated Silhouette as a Young Woman
Excerpt from the collective portrait with her sister Luise and mother; see gallery 1778–1780.
(Otto Cramer Family Archives, courtesy of Martin Reulecke.)
A portrait sitting, 1773
(Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, “Porträtsitzung der Frau Chodowiecka,” Von Berlin nach Danzig: Eine Künstlerfahrt im Jahre 1773, von Daniel Chodowiecki. 108 Lichtdrucke nach den Originalen in der Staatl. Akademie der Künste in Berlin, mit erläuterndem Text und einer Einführung von Wolfgang von Oettingen [Leipzig 1923], no. 44.)
Caroline in Waitz’s 1871 Edition
Reproduction of Tischbein’s portrait of Caroline in Georg Waitz’s 1871 edition (by August Weger).
Wilhelm Scherer remarks:
“A picture of Caroline herself delights us at the beginning of volume 2. A remarkable, wondrous countenance, albeit lacking regular beauty and with a rather unhandsome nose that is too broad and a mouth perhaps too large. But what goodness and understanding flash from her eyes, what mischievousness plays about her mouth, what clarity is discernible on her exposed forehead. The motto framing these features seems to be: frank and open…“
Caroline in Erich Schmidt’s 1913 Edition
Reproduction in edition of Erich Schmidt 1913.
Even Rudolf Haym had remarked concerning the original picture of 1871:
“Indeed, we will not object should one or the other of our readers find that we resemble a bit too closely Odysseus bound to the mast, and that we, too, have been smitten by these intelligent, gentle eyes, the smiling mouth, and the generally charming features speaking to us from within this portrait.”
And Wilhelm Scherer acknowledged those who pointed out how “60 years after her death, Caroline was still able to turn the heads of certain German professors.”
Caroline in Stoll’s 1923 Tischbein’s Biography
Reproduction of J. F. A. Tischbein’s portrait of Caroline in Adolf Stoll’s 1923 biography of Tischbein.
Caroline in Die Gartenlaube
Frontispiece to Rudolf Gottschall, “Eine deutsche Professorstochter,” Die Gartenlaube. Illustrirtes Familienblatt (1871), 597–601.
Allegedly Caroline by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein
This portrait by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein was for some years in the possession of the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach (DLA). Although during its time at the DLA the portrait was identified as that of a “Hessian princess,” it was sold at an auction during 2018 as a portrait of Caroline by the auction house Kunsthaus Lempertz KG in Cologne, which seems to have identified the woman as Caroline based on the similarity between this portrait and the portrait in the previous images. And indeed, the similarity is so astonishing as to beg the question. That said, the attribution remains unsubstantiated. Caroline herself, incidentally, never mentions a second portrait or a second version or iteration of the portrait.
(Kunsthaus Lempertz KG, Neumarkt 3 50667 Köln, p.h.G. Henrik Hanstein, AG Köln HRA 1263; Katalog Auktion 1108, Lot 1119, 16 May 2018; portrait provenance: Galerie Bassenge, Berlin 4.6.2010. Rheinische Privatsammlung.)
Not Caroline, but rather Sophie Elisabeth Preissing, a Gotha singer whom Caroline is said to have resembled as a young woman. “Mlle. [Mademoiselle] Preissing” as Hannchen (Han̄chen) in Walder, ein ländliches Schauspiel mit Gesang in einem Aufzuge, is the character on her knees at far right in this illustration.
Caroline queries Julie von Studnitz in May 1779:
“Did you ever notice that Mlle. Preissing resembled me? People here generally find that to be the case.”
(Theater-Kalender auf das Jahr 1777 [Gotha]; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung.)
Christiane Weitsch
Not Caroline, but rather Christiane Weitsch, whom Caroline is said to have resembled as a mature woman.
Shortly after meeting Caroline for the first time in person, Dorothea Veit writes to Schleiermacher in Berlin on 11 October 1799: “She is not beautiful, but quite pleasant and agreeable. She has the same sort of face, and even a distant resemblance, with Madame Waitsch, including that she appears younger than she is; she has brown hair, which she wears short and curly around her head; she is as tall as I, but her figure is more delicate and gracieuse.”
(Excerpt from a self-portrait of Friedrich Georg Weitsch [Waitsch] and his wife, Christiane Elisabeth, in 1800, Friedrich Georg Weitsch. Se ipsum. Pinxit. Ano 1800, viz. Der Künstler und seine Frau Christiane Elisabeth geb. Schröder [1766–1842]; Städtisches Museum Braunschweig 1200-0934-00.)
Auguste by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein
Auguste, original oil portrait by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein 1798 (Otto Cramer Family Archives, courtesy of Martin Reulecke).
Sabine Schierhoff, historian of the clothing of this period, remarks concerning this portrait:
“Auguste is wearing only a shoulder wrap here, possibly of silken tulle, which also obscures the clothing underneath. Like Caroline, Auguste, too, otherwise wears no jewelry or other accessories, addressing the observer instead essentially through her personality alone.”
“Utteline’s Posy:” “Would I were beautiful, / But such I am not. / And though I be pious, / That helps me naught. / Though money helps some, / I myself have none. / Hence alas for me / No sweetheart has come.”
Viewing a Finished Portrait
Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki’s illustration of friends or family examining a newly finished portrait of a young woman.
Although Caroline oversaw much of Friedrich Tieck’s work on Auguste’s posthumous bust, which Tieck had modeled after Tischbein’s portrait, she thought that Tieck had “followed the drawings too slavishly and did not remove the features Tischbein incorrectly added, as it were the downcast element of the spirit.”
(Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, illustration for Taschenbuch zum geselligen Vergnügen [1799].)
Auguste in Georg Waitz’s 1871 Edition
Reproduction of J. F. A. Tischbein’s portrait of Auguste in Georg Waitz’s edition of 1871 (by August Weger). Wilhelm Scherer remarks:
“Volume 1 is adorned by a picture of Auguste Böhmer exhibiting that particular element of ‘delicate, inwardly directed femininity’ attributed to her by her contemporaries.”
Auguste in Erich Schmidt’s 1913 Edition
Reproduction of J. F. A. Tischbein’s portrait of Auguste Böhmer at the end of volume 1 of Erich Schmidt’s 1913 edition.
Friedrich Schlegel writes teasingly to Auguste in late 1798:
“Why have you not written, you worldly child, you? — Do you call that gratitude? — Is that why you were taught how to dance like a Cossack and read Greek? is that why Tischbein painted you with lowered eyes, that you might not answer me, that you might behave so ill toward me?”
Auguste in Stoll’s 1923 Biography of Tischbein
Reproduction of J. F. A. Tischbein’s portrait of Auguste Böhmer in Adolf Stoll’s 1923 biography of Tischbein.
Not Auguste, but rather St. John the Baptiste (see Caroline’s comments below)
Caroline writes to Luise Gotter from Braunschweig on 20 May 1795, referring to the illustration above (note the provenance):
“He [Johann Joachim Eschenburg] was so pleased with Gustel that he compared her to an English copperplate engraving of a young St. John, and even went and fetched the engraving to convince me.”
(Valentine Green [engraver] after Bartolomé Esteban Murillo [painter], St. John the Baptiste [London ca. 1759–1813], English school; Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig; Museums./Signatur VGreen AB 2.57.)
Auguste and the Virgin Mary
Wilhelm writes to Ludwig Tieck in September 1800, while still in Bamberg immediately after Auguste’s death:
“We also received a drawing made from this painting [by Tischbein]; she now stands in my room, surrounded by a soft halo, where hourly I gaze upon and worship her.”
Although this drawing’s fate is unknown, it was, as Wilhelm here confirms, an iteration of Tischbein’s 1798 portrait, but with a halo presumably after the customary portrayals of the saints and esp. the Virgin Mary, as in the following 18th-century rendering (Auguste’s portrait, included for comparison).
(Auguste’s portrait from Erich Schmidt’s 1913 edition; portrait of the Virgin Mary by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta [painter] and Marco Alvise Pitteri [engraver], Trinitatis, delicia Virgo Maria [ca. 1722–86]; Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum; Museums./Signatur MAPitteri AB 2.39.)
Söder Chateau, Salon F
No. 9, superimposed on Salon-F catalogue page: St. Catherine sitting and reading.
In October 1800, during her visit to Söder Chateau near Hildesheim after Auguste’s death, Caroline writes to Schelling:
“One picture by Guercino in particular, depicting a saint who completely forgets herself while reading a book, is the one I would most like to have from him, since I would like to have had Auguste painted thus. The saint is quite youthful and is dressed in secular clothes, while the form of her head, the plaits in her hair, and her celestial, virginal expression and her enthusiastic engagement in reading — the viewer would eventually imagine it really was her; never have you seen anything as graceful. Even the mere recollection stirs my heart anew.”
See next image.
Not Auguste, but rather the painting St. Catherine assise et lisant ( see Caroline’s comments above)
St. Catherine seated and reading. Currently in the Residenzgalerie Salzburg, loan collection Schönborn-Buchheim, where it is attributed, however, to Carlo Dolci. First half of seventeenth century.
(Residenzgalerie Salzburg, loan collection Schönborn-Buchheim; photo © Ulrich Ghezzi Oberalm.)
Auguste and Catherine
Auguste: Bust by Friedrich Tieck
Reproduction of Auguste’s bust (1804) by Friedrich Tieck.
(Photograph by translator/editor; private collection.)