(Haina 1751-1829 Eutin)
The family of Johann Heinrich Tischbein (1683-1764), hospital baker at Haina monastery and his wife Susanna Margarethe, née Hinsing, with their artistically active descendants, preliminary drawing for a print in the memoirs of so-called “Goethe-Tischbein”, ca. 1814, pen and black ink on paper, 20 x 26 cm, browned, somewhat stained, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Acording to tradition from the estate of the artist
Private collection, Germany.

A certificate by Prof. Dr. Hermann Mildenberger (in copy) avilable.

In 1861 Carl Georg Wilhelm Schiller (1807-1874) edited and published the partly aopcryphical memoirs of “Goethe-Tischbein” “Aus meinem Leben” (From my life) . The texts which were conceived according to instructions, notes and conversations by Tischbein, do not represent a genuinely independent literary achievement by the painter but were supposed to be illustrated by him. For this project several drawings have survived. In his preliminary editorial report Carl G. W. Schiller noted: “He intended to illustrate his biography with etched portraits.” In a letter of January 3rd 1814 “Goethe”-Tischbein wrote: “From my biography I have written some facts and also etched grandfather as well as my grandmother in copper. I have also received a family portrait, which my uncle painted when he was a boy, where all the seven sons and two daughters are rendered, who all became artists. This I will try to make in copper which is preferable to any description, in which one can visibly see how the two elders teach their children diligence and the arts. („Aus meinem Leben“, von J. H. Wilhelm Tischbein, Hg. Carl G.W. Schiller, Braunschweig 1861, 2 Vols., First volume p. XXXIV).

The present drawing which shows the many-figured “Goethe”-Tischbein family can be identified as a preparatory work for a print through its specific emphasis on outlines and which was supposed to appear in the memoirs. This is furthermore proved by a comparison with the laterally-reversed original, which is a wash drawing of exactly the same subject kept in Georgium Castle in Dessau and has a provenance from the Tischbein estate (via the artist’s son Peter Tischbein; see: Julie Harksen, Handzeichnungen Wilhlem Tischbein, ed. By the Staatliche Galerie Dessau 1958, p 3, 14, plate 1). A painting by Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder, who was the uncle and teacher of „Goethe”-Tischbein was suggested to have been the model of the Dessau drawing. Moreover, there are further individual studies of the heads of the progeniotors by the hand of “Goethe”-Tischbein (see Jürgen Hach. Die Familie im Werk Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbeins, Kiel 2011 (private print), S. 5 – 9, 27 - 28 (here also further family portraits executed in the context of „Aus meinem Leben“). Finally, Andreas Andresen lists a print of the same subject which is “in contours and unfinished” and thus apparently a trial proof, which could correspond with our drawing (Andreas Andresen, Die Deutschen Maler-Radirer (Peintres-Graveurs) des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, Second volume – First half, Leipzig 1867, p. 28, No. 2). Furthermore, under no 9 Andresen mentions a scene which is listed entirely at the beginning of “Aus meinem Leben” (Andresen, S. 30, Nr. 9). The Landesmuseum Oldenburg preserves a preparatory drawing which, like the wash drawing in Dessau, also derives from the Tischbein (Peter Tischbein) estate.

“Goethe”-Tischbein also used two family portraits from the hand of his uncle, Anton Tischbein, as models for his intended but unfinished illustrations. These two paintings were posthumously edited and painted in 1759 by Anton Tischbein, which his nephew reproduced in a print at about the same time. (Hach, p. 6, 8; Andresen, p. 28 – 29, Nos. 3 and 4).

The present drawing is hence not only a further essential proof, that “Goethe”-Tischbein planned to illustrate his memoirs. It provides further evidence that this illustration project, as with other literary works („Eselsgeschichte“, „Anakreontische Bilder und Dichtungen“, „Gänsegeschichte“), never came to a completion. For the biography and the frequently literarily oriented activity of “Goethe”-Tischbein the drawing means an important contemporary visual document.

We are grateful to Prof. Dr. Hermann Mildenberger for the confirming the attribution and for the scientific support.