(Berlin 1788–1862 Düsseldorf)
“Pietà”, oil on canvas, 34 x 47 cm, (image size 32.5 x 44 cm, semicircular), on the reverse exhibition label “Ausstellung für christliche Kunst, Düsseldorf 1909”, and with old inscription on the stretcher “Jean (Hans) Pullem”, Düsseldorf, framed, (Rei)

Provenance:
Collection of the artist Hans Pullem (1877-1951), Düsseldorf;
Private Collection Germany.

Exhibited:
Ausstellung für christliche Kunst, Düsseldorf 1909, no. 762.

Compare:
Friedrich von Boetticher, Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts, Hofheim am Taunus 1979, vol. II,2 p. 527, no. 45.
Cordula Grewe, Wilhelm Schadow. catalogue raisonné, ed. by Bettina Baumgärtel and Hans Paffrath, Michael Imhof Verlag 2017, no. 66, pp. 150–152.
Enclosed: exibition catalogue „Ausstellung für christliche Kunst, Düsseldorf 1909“

We are grateful to Dr Michael Simek for the sientific assistanse.

In 1909, two paintings with the theme of the Pietà by Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow were shown at the “Exhibition of Christian Art” in Düsseldorf. One was a draft in the form of a bozzetto in oil on canvas, while the other was the finished piece, of monumental dimensions. In the historical exhibition catalogue, which is included within this lot, they are listed under numbers 614a (p. 37) and 762 (p. 34).

The work presented here is the bozzetto which can be identified as no. 762. The catalogue mentions the painter Jean Pullem, of Düsseldorf, as its owner. This corresponds to the old handwritten designation on the back of the frame at the top right: “Besitz von Maler Jean (overwritten with ‘Hans’) Pullem”. It is clear that this piece is a bozzetto due to the underdrawing in pencil, which shines through in some places, for example, on the upper body of Christ.

The finished version, with its impressive dimensions of 161 x 214 cm, is now
located in the Church of St. Andreas in Düsseldorf and can be seen in its treasury, on the gallery. Schadow himself had donated it to the parish and remarked in a letter dating from 1860: “Before my illness, I painted a Mater Dolorosa, as my swan song, and gave it to the parish church of St. Andreas (...), whose priest is my confessor”. Cordula Grewe, author of the artist’s catalogue raisonné, dates the work to 1853 (Cordula Grewe, Wilhelm Schadow. Werkverzeichnis, p. 50). It is a late work by Schadow, and differs from the artist’s usual style with its
melancholic mood and dark colours.
Unlike the large-format version, the bozzetto has a more intimate character and is closer to Schadow’s design process. The last years of the artist’s life were overshadowed by a loss of vision and, as a result, by depression. It is not for nothing that he calls this last religious work his ‘swan song’. Against this background, the theme of mourning gains a further, personal level of meaning.