King Frederick II, ‘The Great’ King of Prussia (1712-1786)
Emanuel Listnau (born 1740)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1763 (signed and dated)
Materials
Watercolour and calligraphic pen on vellum
Measurements
463 x 349 mm
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 205823
Summary
Watercolour and calligraphic pen on vellum, King Frederick II, ‘The Great’ King of Prussia (1712-1786), by Emanuel Listnau (born 1740), 1763. A man on a rearing grey horse on red background, with banner above. Banner inscribed 'Fridericus Maximus Rex Borussiae Elector Brandenburgensis Supremus Dux Silesiae etc etc etc'. Inscribed below 'From Pope's Essay on Man, The Ia, IIa - IIIa Epistle', 'E. Listnau fecit Regiemonti. 1763'. All the lines in the drawing of the man and the horse are comprised of words from Pope's Essay on Man. Sotheby's 1939 Inventory - E. Listnau 1763, calligraphic portrait of Frederick the Great, composed of Pope's Essay on Man.
Provenance
Part of the Bambridge Collection: bought from Dulau & Co. Ltd., London, on 9 December 1938 for 8 pounds 10 shillings. The hall and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1976 by Mrs Elsie Bambridge (1896-1976)
Marks and inscriptions
E. Listnau fecit Regiemonti. 1763
Makers and roles
Emanuel Listnau (born 1740), artist