Portrait of King Wilhelm I of Württemberg (1781-1864)
after Franz Woltreck (1800-1847)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1945 - 1970
Materials
Cardboard, Plaster
Measurements
256 x 305 mm; 200 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Dessau
Collection
Ightham Mote, Kent
NT 825988
Summary
Sculpture, plaster; portrait of King Wilhelm I of Württemberg (1781-1864); Franz Woltreck (1800-1847); 1837. The monarch is depicted in profile facing right, within a recessed roundel. The sitter and the date of the original sculpture, 1837, are inscribed around the edges, whilst the sculptor’s signature is on the truncation of the bust. The roundel is set within an octagonal cardboard recessed frame. A modern cast after a model made in 1837.
Full description
A circular plaster medallion with a portrait depicting Wilhelm I, king of Württemberg, in profile and facing to his left. The sitter and the date of the original sculpture, 1837, are inscribed around the edges, whilst the sculptor’s signature is on the truncation of the bust. The roundel is set within an octagonal cardboard recessed frame. This is a 20th-century cast of a model made in 1837. Born in Zerbst, Franz Woltreck trained initially as a worker in metal, but went on to study drawing and modelling in Vienna. He subsequently worked in Kassel, Paris (where he was a pupil of the sculptor Pierre-Jean David d’Angers (1788-1856)) and in Berlin, before travelling in 1832 to Rome, where he befriended the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, whom he portrayed in a statuette. In 1836 Woltreck returned to Germany via Munich, settling in Dessau, where he worked mainly on his planned series of famous contemporaries. Having inherited from David d’Angers a particular inclination for portrait sculpture, Woltreck had begun on his travels to create portraits in bust or medallion form of celebrated men and women (‘Lebenskizze des Bildhauers Franz Woltreck’ in Marggraf 1840, pp. 321-23). The medallion seems to represent King Wilhelm I, through comparison with images on coins minted ariund 1840. The subject may alternatively, but less probably, be Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig von Preußen (1797-1888), King of Prussia from 1861 and later the first Emperor of Germany, as Wilhelm I. The image forms part of an extensive series of around fifty medallion portraits of the most famous statesmen, scholars and artists of his time, which Woltreck began when staying in Munich in 1836, and continued after his return to Dessau. According to Woltreck, he had the medallions cast in bronze (Manfred Pix, ‘Der Bildhauer Franz Woltreck im biedermeierlichen München‘, Zeitschrift für bayerische Landesgeschichte, 69 (2006), pp. 988-91). Another contemporary report stated that some 200 portrait medallions were to be cast in iron in Munich, for the cabinet of the Duke of Anhalt-Dessau (Marggraff 1840, p. 320). Wilhelm I was king of Württemberg, in south-western Germany, from 1816 until his death in 1864. Early in his reign he energetically pursued policies of constitutional and economic reform which, by the 1830s, had brought stability and considerable wealth to his kingdom. Wilhelm sought to create a closer alliance of the four German states of Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover and Württemberg that would be powerful enough to act as a counterbalance to the two strongest German powers, Austria and Prussia. This ultimately failed, especially after the turmoil of the 1848 revolution which, within Württemberg, saw Wilhelm concede powers to liberal movements, although in his latter years he became more reactionary as a ruler. Jeremy Warren May 2023
Provenance
Acquired by Charles Henry Robinson. Bequeathed in 1985.
Marks and inscriptions
To sides of subject:: WILHELM / DESSAU MDCCCXXXVII Truncation of bust:: F. WOLTRECK
Makers and roles
after Franz Woltreck (1800-1847), sculptor
References
Marggraff 1840: Rudolf Marggraff, ‚Albert Thorvaldsen, Portraitstatuette von Franz Woltreck, nebst kunstgeschichtlichen Bemerkungen über ikonische Denkmale‘,Münchner Jahrbücher für bildende Kunst, I.3 (1840), pp. 317-23 Manfred Pix, ‘Der Bildhauer Franz Woltreck im biedermeierlichen München‘, Zeitschrift für bayerische Landesgeschichte, 69 (2006), pp. 988-91