1060 - Joseph Stieler

Joseph Stieler Portrait Adelaide Schiasetti Oil on canvas (relined). 67 x 54 cm. On the reverse a transcription of the former title, together with biographical details. Certificate Dr. Ulrike von Hase-Schmundt, Munich, 10.6.2021 (copy). Provenance From the collection of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria. – Property of the Bavarian Royal Family (adhesive label on the reverse). - Sold in 1928 by the Wittelsbach Compensation Fund to Galerie Wimmer, Munich. - Acquired in the 1960s by the previous owner from Kunsthaus Bühler, Stuttgart. - Neumeister, Munich, 1.12.2021, lot 1122. - Private collection in southern Germany. Literature Sales register Joseph Stieler 1821. - Estate of Leo von Klenze (1784-1864). BSB Klenzeana I/2. - Messerer, R. (Ed.): Briefwechsel zwischen Ludwig I. von Bayern und Georg von Dillis 1807-1841, Munich 1966, no. 513,5 und 515,4 (two letters regarding the exhibition 1823). - Hase, U. von: Joseph Stieler 1781-1858. Munich 1971, p. 95. - Hojer, G.: Die Schönheitsgalerie König Ludwigs I. Munich 1979, p. 11. - Bronner, F.: La Schiassetti. Jacquemont, Rossini, Stendhal ... Une saison parisienne au Théâtre-Italien 1824-1826. Paris 2011. Adelaide Schiasetti! The young Italian mezzo-soprano’s appearances at the Munich Court Opera delighted not only audiences but also the Bavarian royal family. She was acclaimed in roles in operas by Rossini as well as Mozart, and the critics had nothing but the warmest praise for her. She sang for the Bavarian king and queen in private, and it is said that the queen presented her with a diamond-set heart in gratitude. And the Bavarian crown prince, notoriously susceptible to the charms of the women of his day, was set ablaze with passion! How do we know all this about a singer who is almost forgotten today? None other than Henri Beyle, who was to become world-famous under the pseudonym “Stendhal”, passed down the essential facts to us in his correspondence. During his years in Milan, Stendhal was a friend of the Schiasetti family, and he and Adelaide’s father Fortunato, a Napoleonic general, spent a great deal of time together. It was also Stendhal who did all he could to support Adelaide’s training and, above all, her career as a singer after her father’s untimely death in 1813 left the family in financial hardship. Stendhal likewise worked tirelessly to make possible her move to Paris, where she was to settle in 1824. The present portrait of the singer Adelaide Schiasetti is one of the first works to have been considered for inclusion in the “Gallery of Beauties” created by Joseph Stieler, which went on to achieve international fame. This brings us back to the crown prince mentioned above: with the appointment of Joseph Stieler as court painter in 1821, the future King Ludwig I of Bavaria began to develop his idea of a gallery of beauties with great intensity. The portrait of Schiasetti, painted as early as 1820, did not, however, meet the crown prince’s expectations, owing both to its painted oval format and to its relatively small size. Although the portrait of Adelaide Schiasetti was therefore not to become a cornerstone of the Gallery of Beauties, it remained very important to the crown prince: on 30 July 1823 he informed his gallery director, Johann Georg von Dillis, that he would lend it to the Kunstverein exhibition. The painting remained in the possession of the royal house until it was sold by the Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds in 1928.