1063 - Carl Joseph Begas

Carl Joseph Begas Portrait of the Three Sisters of the von Bernstorff Family Oil on canvas. 55.5 x 55 cm. Signed and dated centre right: C. BEGAS. F. 1830. Provenance In the ownership of the descendants of the sitter, Henriette Marianne Sophie, to the present day. With an old, faintly legible label describing the sitters on the reverse: "Henriette Marianne Sophie / […] Tochter von / Joachim u. Sophia Bernstorff. Erstere geb. d. 27. Sept. / 1803., vermählt mit Major von Roeder d. 3. Sept. 1822. / Marianne – geb. d. 12. Febr. 1805. verm. d. 7. Juni 1827 / mit Graf Itzenplitz – bald nach Vollendung des / Bildes d. 6. Sept. 1831 heimgegangen. Sophie 4 Jahre / später vermählt mit Theodor Reventlov. / Gemalt von Begas." The three young women in this charming portrait are described as the daughters of Joachim Friedrich Count von Bernstorff (1771-1835) and Elisabeth Sophia Henriette von Blücher (1770-1807). The standing lady in the wine-red gown is likely to be the eldest daughter, Henriette Sophie Auguste Charlotte (1803-1850), who married the Prussian Lieutenant General Karl Ferdinand Heinrich von Roeder in 1822. She is making eye contact with her next-youngest sister, Marianne Amalie (1805-1831), who married the Prussian Minister of State Heinrich Friedrich August Count von Itzenplitz five years later. As noted on the label on the reverse, she died very young at the age of 26, four years after the completion of the present portrait. At the time the painting was made, the youngest of the three sisters, Sophie (1807-1857), was still unmarried. She wears no wedding ring and appears instead to be making eye contact with the viewer. Is she looking out for her future husband? In any event, four years later the time would come, and she married Theodor Count von Reventlow, who would later become President of the short-lived “Joint Government” in Schleswig-Holstein (1848/1849). To this day, the painting remains in the possession of the descendants of Henriette Marianne Sophie von Roeder, née von Bernstorff, the eldest sister, who is depicted standing here. Our harmonious composition, with a view of a landscape in the background on the left, is like the epitome of the sensitive Biedermeier portrait. Its creator, Carl Joseph Begas, born in Heinsberg and trained under Antoine-Jean Gros in Paris, but subsequently active primarily in Berlin, was particularly highly regarded for such portraits, although he also produced history paintings and religious works. “His sensitive characterisation of the personalities portrayed, combined with a soft, rich palette and great technical skill, made him one of the most important portraitists of his time and has continued to earn him considerable esteem to the present day.” (Rita Müllejans-Dickmann). We would like to thank Dr Rita Müllejans-Dickmann, Heinsberg, who examined the painting in the original, for confirming that it is by the hand of Carl Joseph Begas.