(Haina 1751-1829 Eutin)
The family of Johann Heinrich Tischbein (1683-1764), hospital baker at Haina monastery and his wife Susanna Margarethe, née Hinsing, with their artistically active descendants, preliminary drawing for a print in the memoirs of the so-called “Goethe-Tischbein”, c. 1814, pen and black ink on paper, 20 x 26 cm, browned, somewhat stained, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
According to tradition from the estate of the artist
Private collection, Germany.

A certificate by Prof. Dr. Hermann Mildenberger (in copy) avilable.

In 1861 Carl Georg Wilhelm Schiller (1807-1874) edited and published the partly apocryphical memoirs of “Goethe-Tischbein” “Aus meinem Leben” (From my life). The texts, which were conceived according to Tischbein’s instructions, notes and conversations and do not represent a genuinely independent literary achievement on the part of the painter, were to be illustrated by the artist himself. For this project drawing material has been preserved. In his preliminary editorial report Carl G. W. Schiller noted: “He intended to illustrate his biography with etched portraits.” And in a letter of January 3rd 1814 he wrote: “From my biography I have also written some facts and also etched grandfather as well as my grandmother in copper. I have also received a family portrait, which my uncle painted when he was a boy, where all the seven sons and two daughters are rendered, who all became artists. This I will try to make in copper which is preferable to any description, in which one can visibly see how the two elders teach their children diligence and the arts. („Aus meinem Leben“, by J. H. Wilhelm Tischbein, Ed. Carl G.W. Schiller, Brunswick 1861, 2 Vols., First volume p. XXXIV).

The present drawing of this figurative Tischbein family portrait described by “Goethe” Tischbein can be identified in its specific outline as a preparatory work for a print in the memoirs. This proves also conclusive in comparison with the side-reversed original, which is a wash drawing of exactly the same subject matter kept in Georgium Castle in Dessau and has a provenance that goes back to the Tischbein estate (via the artist’s son Peter Tischbein; see: Julie Harksen, Handzeichnungen Wilhlem Tischbein, ed. By the Staatliche Galerie Dessau 1958, p 3, 14, plate 1). A painting by Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder, who was the uncle and teacher of „Goethe”-Tischbein, was considered to be the model of the Dessau drawing. Moreover, there are further individual studies of the heads of the progenitors by the hand of “Goethe”-Tischbein (see Jürgen Hach. Die Familie im Werk Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbeins, Kiel 2011 (private print), S. 5 – 9, 27 - 28 (here also further family portraits executed in the context of „Aus meinem Leben“). Finally, Andreas Andresen lists a print of the same subject “in contours and unfinished”, which is probably a trial proof, that could correspond to our drawing (Andreas Andresen, Die Deutschen Maler-Radirer (Peintres-Graveurs) des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, Second volume – First half, Leipzig 1867, p. 28, No. 2). Furthermore, under no 9 Andresen mentions a scene entirely from the beginning of “Aus meinem Leben” (Andresen, S. 30, Nr. 9). The Landesmuseum Oldenburg preserves a preparatory drawing which, like the wash drawing in Dessau, also derives from the Tischbein (Peter Tischbein) estate.
As historical models for the planned illustration of his unfinished, but finally in 1861 posthumously edited memoirs, the "Goethe" - Tischbein was also served by two family portraits by the hand of another uncle, Anton Tischbein, who painted them in 1759, both of which he reproduced in print in the same period (Hach, pp. 6, 8; Andresen, pp. 28 - 29, nos. 3 and 4).
The present drawing is thus not only another essential proof that the "Goethe" - Tischbein planned to illustrate his memoirs. It is an indication that this illustration project, as with other literary works ("Eselsgeschichte", "Anakreontische Bilder und Dichtungen", "Gänsegeschichte"), never reached a final conclusion. For the biography and often literarily oriented effectiveness of the "Goethe - painter", the drawing means an important visual document.

We are grateful to Prof. Dr. Hermann Mildenberger for the confirmation of the attribution and for the scientific support.