6772 - Fürstenau, Eduard August Wilhelm

Fürstenau, Eduard August Wilhelm Design for a Museum of Fine Arts. Watercolor and gouache over brown pen and ink, highlights in opaque white on light brown paper or thin cardboard, mounted on cardboard. 97 x 198 cm. Signed and dated in the lower right corner in the artist’s own hand: “I hereby affirm under oath that the conception, execution, and presentation of this drawing were entirely my own work, without any outside assistance. Eduard Fürstenau, Royal Government Architectural Draftsman. Berlin, Nov. 29, 1887,” titled above the illustration “Design for a Museum of Fine Arts / Cell VII / Sheet VII” and with handwritten scale indications. This monumental design by Eduard Fürstenau was created in 1887 as part of an architectural competition organized by the Prussian Academy of Arts. The task was to develop a “Museum of Fine Arts for a provincial capital with a population of 50,000.” Fürstenau’s design was likely inspired by other significant Historicist museum buildings, such as the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin, as suggested above all by the impressive dome and the colorfully painted walls, some of which are adorned with frescoes. The detailed design, executed with great subtlety in color—a cross-section along the building’s longitudinal axis—apparently convinced the jury of the Prussian Academy, as Fürstenau was awarded the Grand Academic State Prize for it, which included a scholarship for a two-year study trip that took the architect to Italy and the Orient in 1889–90. - We ask that you request condition reports for the lots, as the condition is usually not listed in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.