(Haina 1751–1829 Eutin)
Portrait of a boy with blond curls,
signed and dated lower right: WTischbein 1782,
oil on panel, 55 x 43.9 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Germany (for more than three generations)

We are grateful to Steffi Roettgen for endorsing the attribution to Wilhelm Tischbein after examination of the present painting in the original. A written certificate (February 2021) is available.

Roettgen: ‘The picture shows a charming, chubby boy who is around five years old and whose most conspicuous feature, apart from his healthy complexion, is his head of blond curls, reaching down to his shoulders and framing his strong, muscular neck. He wears a cream-coloured shirt, loosely held together while leaving the upper part of his chest uncovered, and an olive-green cape trimmed with a gold embroidered border on the right. This detail in combination with the two bands of the same colour, draped over his right shoulder, lend the portrait a theatrical appearance that is emphasised by the sitter’s three-quarter profile. It is clear that this child adopts a pose, which, however, does not at all diminish the portrait character of the picture […]. Due to the date of execution, this portrait of a boy could have been painted in Zurich or Milan. According to his memoirs, written, however, much later in Tischbein’s life, the artist set off for Zurich on 24 October 1782 to travel to Rome for the second time, spending the months from October to the end of December 1782 in Milan’.

According to Steffi Roettgen this previously unknown portrait marks an important transition in Tischbein’s development as an artist. It shows a technical and painterly ease rarely reached in those years.