6530 - Chodowiecki, Daniel Nikolaus

Chodowiecki, Daniel Nikolaus Minerva presents Professor Castillon with a crown; next to him is a half-length figure of a man facing left. Brown pen, pencil, red chalk, on handmade paper; on the reverse: portrait of a gentleman in profile facing left, in red chalk. 11.2 x 18.4 cm. Inscribed in the artist’s own hand at the bottom margin: “Professor Castilon receives a crown from Minerva. ‘Not to me,’ he says, ‘but to my fatherland.’” On the reverse, inscribed in pencil by an earlier hand: “Frederic Le Grand.” The honored professor is either Johann Castillon, born Giovanni Francesco Mauro Melchiorre Salvemini in Italy (1708–1791), or his son Friedrich Adolf Maximilian Gustav Castillon (1747–1814), both of whom served as professors in Berlin. The father was a mathematician and astronomer; the son was a philosopher and active in the field of translation. Provenance: From the artist’s estate. F. A. C. Prestel, Frankfurt am Main, Auction “Hand-drawn Sketches by Daniel Chodowiecki, Peter von Cornelius … from the Estates of These Artists” on May 29, 1925, Lot 156 (Lugt 445b, catalog excerpt mounted on the base). Private collection, Munich. Galerie Bassenge, Berlin, Auction 74, 1999, Lot 5572. - Please request condition reports for the lots, as the condition is usually not specified in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.