6039 - Weidemann, Friedrich Wilhelm

Weidemann, Friedrich Wilhelm Portrait of Lieutenant General Gottfried Albrecht von Bredow. Oil on canvas, with relining. 141 x 105 cm. Signed lower left “F. W. Weidemann pinx.”, inscribed upper left “General-Lieutenant von Bredow. / May 22, 1719”. The painting was part of the “Chief Gallery” commissioned by Frederick William I for the Potsdam City Palace. The portrait collection was begun in 1714 and depicts all the regimental commanders of the Old Prussian Army. Until his death, the king had the gallery continuously updated; when a field commander died, his portrait was transferred to a separate room (“Todten-Cammer”), giving the gallery not only a documentary character but also a commemorative function. Until around 1735, the court painter Friedrich Wilhelm Weidemann was primarily entrusted with creating the portraits; he was later succeeded by Georg Liesiewski (see Hans Bleckwenn: “The Portrait of Adam Friedrich von Wreech—A Relic of the ‘Chefgalerie Potsdam’?”, in: Martin Sperlich (ed.): Charlottenburg Palace: Festschrift for Margarete Kühn, Berlin 1975, p. 208). Today, 25 portraits remain in museum collections (see Gerd Bartoschek, Christoph Martin Vogtherr: “Destroyed, Stolen, Lost: The Losses of the Prussian Palaces during World War II,” Potsdam 2004, pp. 596–603). Provenance: From the Royal Prussian collection, Potsdam City Palace. Collection of Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia, Villa Ingenheim, Potsdam (adhesive label on the reverse: “No. 110 / V. Ingenh. / 50 Fl.”). In a private collection in Berlin since 1948. Lit.: General Catalog of Paintings in the Prussian Palaces (GK I), Berlin 1883 ff., no. 4563 (label on the reverse). Bogislav von Puttkamer: “The Portrait Gallery of Curland-Brandenburg and Royal Prussian Generals, Colonels, and Junior Officers in the Royal City Palace in Potsdam,” in: Communications of the Society for the History of Potsdam, Vol. 2 (1866), pp. 157–177, here p. 166. Kurt von Priesdorff: Military Leadership, Vol. 1: The Generals from the Beginnings of the Electoral Brandenburg-Prussian Army until 1740, Hamburg 1937, p. 95, no. 165 with illustration. - Please inquire about condition reports for the lots, as the condition is listed in the catalog only in exceptional cases. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.