RKD STUDIES

The Great Elector really could not have been afraid that his effigy would remain unknown to his own and future generations. For a small court with limited means he employed a remarkable number of Dutch artists, incidentally with a preference for painters from The Hague, a town adjusted to court life. But the needs of the Berlin court, like everywhere else, went further. Particularly in the second half of the 17th century there was a demand for histories, allegories and decorative pieces. Friedrich III (1657-1713) showed a predilection for decorative ensembles, ceiling paintings and similar works. From the just mentioned Wieling, Duval and Jacques Vaillant there are such history paintings. However, as early as 1646 Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert (1613/14-1654), who certainly belongs to the Flemish art circle, had created an Allegory on the marriage of the Great Elector and Louise Henriette of Orange [1].¹ Perhaps in this context we also should mention Jan Lievens’ (1607-1674) representation of Mars and Venus (Sanssouci [now Oranienburg, ed.]) [2], although it is not to be considered as an allegory of this marriage.²

The mythological paintings of Gerard de Lairesse were highly appreciated at the court in Berlin. It is however very unlikely that the artist came to Berlin, as Nagler surmises.³ His Polish pupil Teodor Lubieniecki (c. 1653-in or after 1729) on the other hand did stay at this court later, to which we will come back.

In 1660 we meet Michael Willmann (1630-1706) from Königsberg for the first time in Berlin. He received his training in the circle of Rembrandt and Jacob Backer.⁴ Nothing of what he must have painted in Berlin at the time, has been preserved. But during his second stay in the residence his Apotheosis of the Great Electress [3] of 1682 originated, a painting that betrays the solid painterly culture of Holland, despite its Flemish airs.⁵ From the same year stems an altarpiece for Königsberg. However, Willmann displayed his main activity in Silesia, where we will meet him again and speak more about his work.⁶

Unfortunately the decorative paintings of Johannes Marinus († before 1692) from The Hague have not been preserved. In 1666 he was appointed as a court painter to the Elector in Cleves and from 1669 on he was working in Potsdam.⁷ In 1675 the Elector sent him to Amsterdam to collect some boxes with newly bought paintings.⁸

1
Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert
Double portrait of a man and a woman, possibly Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg (1620-1688) and Louise Henriette van Oranje-Nassau (1627-1667) as Dido and Aeneas, dated 1646
Potsdam, Bildergalerie am Schloss Sanssouci, inv./cat.nr. GK I 6291

2
Jan Lievens
Mars and Venus, dated 1653
Oranienburg, Schlossmuseum Oranienburg

We get a better idea of the academic works of Rutger van Langevelt (1635-1695),⁹ who came to Berlin as a court painter in 1678. Both in Berlin as in Holland [4] decorative paintings have been preserved.¹⁰ Langevelt was very versatile: he painted portraits [5] and church interiors [6-7] and made designs for tapestries (together with Abraham Begheyn?). Furthermore he built the pleasure castle Köpenick.¹¹ His influence as a teacher was significant. He taught the princes Ludwig and Philip Wilhelm, the German architect Christian Elterster (1671-1700), the painters Samuel Theodor Gericke (1669-1729) and Friedrich Wilhelm Weidemann (1668-1750). His son Willem van Langevelt († after 1721) was a painter in Berlin as well.

5
Rutger van Langevelt
Portrait of a woman with a lemon in her hand, dated 1680

The dominating style of classical history painting at the court is best understood by the work of Augustinus Terwesten I (1649-1711).¹² His training is already indicative. First he learned in The Hague with Nicolaes Willlingh, who however soon acquired the position of court painter in Berlin. Then he undertook a three-year trip to Italy and looked around another three years in France and England before he arrived in Berlin in 1690. He painted many things for the castles there, such as Charlottenburg, Oranienbaum and Potsdam, where his works still can be seen [8-11].¹³ Together with Andreas Schlüter (1659/60-1714) he founded the Academy in 1695 [12]. The next year his brother Mattheus Terwesten (1670-1757) became a pupil at this Berlin academy [13].¹⁴ But soon the latter travelled on to Rome and Vienna to complete his education. In 1710 this Mattheus was summoned to Berlin as a court painter and a professor at the academy.

The Pole Teodor Lubieniecki (1654-1716/8), who had been a pupil both of Johan Georg Stuhr in Hamburg and Gerard de Lairesse in Amsterdam, was active in Berlin from 1696 onwards, first as a royal court painter and later temporarily as director of the academy.¹⁵ His portraits [14] are of the same quality as the late portraits of Nicolaes Maes and Caspar Netscher. In Berlin he worked at the castle and was also engaged himself as a landscape painter. To these ‘fleminate‘ painters of the end of the century also belongs Jan Anthonie Coxie (after 1650-1720). He was from Mechelen, but also worked in Amsterdam. In the years from 1705 to 1713 he created altarpieces and ceiling decorations in Berlin [15],¹⁶ where he also taught figure drawing from the nude.

It may indicate a the change in taste that the Elector no longer preferred to send his own people anymore preferably to the Netherlands for their training, but rather to France and Italy. The German history painter Johann Jakob Rollos († c. 1699) still had been in Holland, but only in transit. From there he quickly went on to Paris, where he painted several portraits around 1670. Incidentally the Elector never experienced much joy from his expenditure, since Rollos never returned to Berlin. The very last artist we have to mention and who already belongs to the 18th century, is the Dutchman Arnout Rentinck (1712-1774/5), a pupil of Arnold Boonen [16]. ¹⁷ We have an idea about his oeuvre from some mezzotint engravings.

14
Teodor Lubieniecki
Family portrait in a park, before 1700
Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie