The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain, 1710–50
March 25, 2008, through June 29, 2008
Images from the Exhibition: First | Next | Last
| |
 |
|
|
| |
Nicolas de Largillierre (1656–1746), Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and
King of Poland, 1714–15, oil on canvas,
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City,
Missouri (Purchase: Nelson Trust) |
|
|
Largillierre’s bravura portrait shows Frederick August, known as Augustus the Strong, as a military leader, attired in armor and pointing with his left hand to the depredations caused by his victorious army. Attached to his blue-silk sash is the Danish Order of the Elephant, which he had received in 1686. Augustus established the first manufactory for the production of porcelain outside China in 1710 in the town of Meissen, near Dresden.
Despite the imposing presence of the sitter, it is unlikely that Largillierre painted this portrait from the life. As a young man, Frederick August had visited Paris as part of his Grand Tour in 1687, when he had also been received by Louis XIV at Versailles. But there are no records of a subsequent visit, and Largillierre was never summoned to the court at Dresden. In all likelihood, the portrait of Augustus the Strong was commissioned when the sitter’s son, Prince Frederick August II, was resident in Paris in 1714–15. Largillierre painted a portrait of the young prince, today in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; as a companion to it, he executed the portrait of the forty-four-year-old monarch, renowned for his physical strength and his dynastic ambitions.
>>> Next image from the exhibition.
The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain, 1710–50, was organized for The Frick Collection by Director Anne L. Poulet and Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, guest curator of the exhibition. It is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, published by The Frick Collection in association with D Giles Unlimited, London, available in mid-April in the Museum Shop and online at shopfrick.org.
The exhibition is made possible, in part, by the generous support of the Arnhold Foundation.
|
