Portraits of Frederick the Great

Idealized portrait of Frederick the Great by Anton Graff, 1781.

Frederick the Great was the subject of many portraits. Many were painted during Frederick's life, and he would give portraits of himself as gifts. Almost all portraits of Frederick are idealized and do not reflect how he looked according to his death mask.[1] It has been suggested that the most accurate representation of Frederick may be the picture of a flautist from William Hogarth's painting Marriage A-la-Mode: 4. The Toilette.[2][3]

## Paintings and etchings

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During the lifetime of Frederick the Great a large number of idealized portraits were made of him by many painters and engravers, among them Antoine Pesne,[4][5] Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff,[6][7] Johann Georg Ziesenis,[8][9][10][11][12] Gottfried Hempel,[13][14][15] Johann Heinrich Christian Franke,[16][17][18] Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo,[19][20][21] Anna Dorothea Therbusch,[22][23] Anton Graff,[24][25][26] Johann Georg Wille[27][28] Georg Friedrich Schmidt[29][30][31][32] and Daniel Chodowiecki.[33][34][35][36][37]

The king gave several of these pictures away as gifts in recognition of rendered services,[38] whether as life-size paintings, miniatures set with diamonds that were worn like medals, or representations on snuff boxes.[39] However, most portraits were produced for commercial reasons without being commissioned by the king, because there was a demand for his likeness from all of the courts of Europe. None of these official portraits show the real facial features of the monarch. Many comments from Frederick's contemporaries who met the king prove that his true appearance did not match his depictions in painted and engraved portraits.[40] For instance, in 1761, during a meeting with Frederick, Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim saw “a royal face that not a single painting depicts truthfully”.[41] For the chronicler Christoph Friedrich Nicolai it was clear: “[...] no portrait is like him.”[42] Consequently, in 1897, art historian Paul Seidel complained that no clear judgment could be derived from the surviving portraits as to what Frederick the Great really looked like.[43]

The French Rococo painter Antoine Pesne (1683–1757),[44] who worked at the Prussian court for many years and was appointed director of the Berlin Academy of Arts, chiefly depicted Frederick in his younger years, his earliest portrait being that of Frederick with his older sister, Wilhelmine, as children (c.1714–15).[45][46] Several times he painted the crown prince[47][48][49] and young king[50][51][52] in a representational style with smooth features. With some justification, critics accused Pesne of portraying all of his royal sitters equally beautifully and lacking any sharper characterization.[53][54] For instance, referring to Pesne’s 1740 portrait of Frederick, art historian Helmut Börsch-Supan writes that the artist “wasn't interested in a true portrayal of the character. Pesne painted Frederick the Great as he depicted beautiful women courting the admiration of their viewers. This is a feminine trait that makes it difficult to see the full personality in this portrait.”[55] Indeed, Pesne's idealized representations of Frederick do not correspond with a statement by the Austrian ambassador Friedrich Heinrich Graf von Seckendorff about the 14-year-old crown prince that he looked "old and stiff" at a young age and acted accordingly presumably because of the hardships imposed on him by his father.[56] This means that already in his younger years, Frederick “does not seem to have been a rather handsome boy”.[57] Significantly, even his father said, when the English royal family had asked him for a portrait of the crown prince, that they should have a large monkey painted because that was Frederick's likeness.[58]

Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff seems to have invented a pictorial formula that depicted the crown prince in profile with a classically straightened nose,[59][60] which must have had an immense influence on countless later profile portraits of the king that were widely distributed through prints.[61] According to Börsch-Supan, the receding forehead, whose contour in side view is a straight continuation of the bridge of the nose, gives the face something bold and sharp, but is in strange contradiction to the full, somewhat drooping lower face and the beginnings of a double chin.[62]

In 1763 Johann Georg Ziesenis produced a "bourgeois" portrait of the king which has been claimed to be the only painting for which Frederick sat during his lifetime.[63] It was commissioned by Frederick's sister, Duchess Philippine Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.[64] However, more recent researchers have doubts as to whether the king actually sat for this painting from 17 to 20 June 1763 at Castle Salzdahlum,[65] especially since he had an aversion to being portrayed and the artist made Frederick's facial features look far too handsome.[66] Indeed, in 1763, at the end of the Seven Years' War, Frederick "complained in his letters of how much weight he had lost and how thin, fragile, and gray he had become."[67] For instance, in a letter to Sophie Caroline von Camas of March 6, 1763, he wrote: "You will see me again as an old man ... I'm as gray as a donkey, I lose a tooth every day and I'm half paralyzed from gout".[68] Ziesenis's portrait hardly agrees with this.[69]

When the French painter Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo stayed in Berlin from 1763 to 1769, he painted at least two portraits of the Prussian king, one of which has been in the royal collection in London since 1816.[70][71] According to Paul Seidel, the artist put the “stamp of unnatural” on these portraits of Frederick. “You can see at first glance that they are painted from memory and without a sitting.”[72]

Such images, based on Knobelsdorff's and Pesne's idealized portraiture, dominated both in painted and engraved form until the 1760s. However, after the Seven Years' War, the conception of Frederick portraits seems to have changed, now even allowing the depiction of individual shortcomings or the effects of experienced stress. At the same time, in connection with an intensive formation of legends about the military successes of the king, the emergence of an “age type” can be observed both in painting and sculpture.[73] By emphasizing the sharp nasolabial folds, the straight lines of the forehead and the bridge of the nose, the narrow mouth and the protruding eyes the artists created a type of image that art historian Helmut Börsch-Supan has characterized as “very Prussian in its expressive frugality to the point of scantiness.”[74]

A very popular depiction of Frederick in the new style is the portrait painted by Johann Heinrich Christian Franke in 1763/64, of which a number of variants exist.[75][76][77] It shows a bourgeois king holding up his tricorne in greeting. The monarch was well known for frequently saluting in public with his “cocked hat.”[78]

In 1767, Anton Friedrich König (1722-1787) was appointed royal court miniature portrait painter for Frederick the Great. In 1769, he produced a watercolour painting on ivory showing the king as an intellectual writer, historian and philosopher in front of his writing table, surrounded by the books in his library.[79][80][81]

In a gouache of 1772 by Daniel Chodowiecki the king is posed rather awkwardly in a slightly bent position on horseback, a representation that circulated in numerous copies[82][83] and engraved versions. A print after it was later used by Johann Caspar Lavater as an illustration for his Physiognomische Fragmente (1777), because the author was of the opinion that here "the Great, He himself, was riding past," as he believed he knew him from life.[84]

When in 1775 Frederick sent Voltaire the portrait that Anna Dorothea Therbusch had painted of him,[85][86][87] he ironically said: “In order not to dishonour her brush, she has adorned my contorted face with the grace of youth.”[88] Only a few years later, Therbusch's brother Christoph Friedrich Reinhold Lisiewski painted a portrait of the Prussian king that looks very different from his sister's,[89][90] which is all the more surprising given that the siblings often collaborated on their paintings.[91]

In 1781 Anton Graff painted Frederick the Great for the Prussian envoy in Dresden, Philipp Karl von Alvensleben. For this portrait and some later copies the monarch never sat. The artist is said to have observed the king from a distance when he attended a military parade and then made the picture from memory.[92][93][94] It shows a bourgeois-looking king and, in its concentration on the physiognomy, reflects Graff's portrait style more than a king's claim to representation.[95] Helmut Börsch-Supan assumes that Graff only corrected the facial features that he found “carved” in Franke's portrait in order to make them “more carnal, softer and human.”[96]

In the case of eighteenth-century portraits of monarchs, less importance was attached to the likeness of the sitters, and more to the political and social role in which they wanted to be represented in public. For example, they were shown as rulers with scepter and ermine cloak[97] or as competent military leaders, not what they looked like in their everyday life.[98][99] According to art historian Frauke Mankartz, the recognizable "brand" was more important than realism.[100] The king himself often said that his portraits did not resemble him,[101] and his contemporaries, including Emperor Joseph II,[102] were of the opinion that not a single painting depicted his face truthfully.[103]

Indeed, Frederick had a pronounced aversion to sitting for portraits, which he consistently refused because he was convinced that he was ugly. "You have to be Apollo, Mars or Adonis to be painted, but since I do not have the honour of resembling one of these gentlemen, I have withdrawn my face from the painters' brush as much as it depended on me," he wrote to Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert in 1774.[104] Furthermore, he said to the Marquis d’Argens: "There is so much talk about the fact that we terrestrial kings are made in the image of God. Then I look in the mirror and am obliged to say to myself: How unlucky for God!"[105] After extensive analysis of different types of Frederick portraits, Andrea M. Kluxen arrives at the conclusion that there is no realistic image that accurately depicts Frederick's (ugly) facial features.[106]

Death mask of Frederick the Great, 1786

Idealized portrait of Frederick from The Flute Concert of Sanssouci by Adolph Menzel, 1852

Possible portrait of Frederick the Great in The Toilette scene from Marriage A-la-Mode,[107] engraving by Simon François Ravenet after William Hogarth, 1745

The death mask of him, taken by John Eckstein on 17 August 1786,[108][109][110] demonstrates precisely what had led the king to his conviction that he was extremely ugly: Frederick had a prominently hooked nose and little else to make him look handsome.[111] This aquiline nose is not depicted in the official painted portraits. However, it is to be seen in a toned-down form in a print by Johann Georg Wille (1757)[112][113] and in a bust by Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (completed in 1770).[114][115] In her analysis of Frederick busts and statues, Saskia Hüneke also noticed that nearly all of them depict the nose in a relatively straight line. "In comparison, the wax pouring from the original form of the death mask does not show this line, so that it is more an ideal of the ancient Greek profile".[116]

Only one artist seems to have shown the Prussian king as he really was, namely with an extremely clear aquiline nose and playing the flute in front of a symbol of homosexuality: William Hogarth in scene 4 of his satirical series Marriage A-la-Mode. The picture is entitled The Toilette and was completed in 1744. Art historian Bernd Krysmanski argues that Hogarth must have learned about Frederick's facial features from the Prussian engraver Georg Friedrich Schmidt whom he had visited in Paris in 1743 while seeking engravers for the engraved version of Marriage A-la-Mode.[117][107] The features of the flautist depicted on the left of Hogarth's painting[118][119] bear a striking resemblance to the death mask of Frederick,[120] as does the face of the flautist in Simon François Ravenet's reversed engraving after Hogarth's painting (1745).[121]

In the nineteenth century, the king became a popular subject in historical paintings and prints. Adolph Menzel depicted events from the life of Frederick both in the wood-engravings to illustrate the Geschichte Friedrichs des Grossen by Franz Kugler[122][123] and in several of his paintings,[124] including Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci as the most famous work.[125] In these pictures he continues to avoid representing Frederick with a crooked nose,[126] although he must have known the death mask of the Prussian king.[127]

## Monuments

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As during his lifetime Frederick protested against being depicted in monuments, only after his death numerous monuments were erected, including Johann Gottfried Schadow's Szczecin marble statue (1793)[128][129] and Christian Daniel Rauch's Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great (Berlin, 1851).[130][131][132]

## Conclusion

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Art historian Helmut Börsch-Supan concludes: “The king's indifference to his portrait ... and the difficulty of capturing his physical appearance in a picture, due to the mobility of his mind, have meant that there is no truly valid portrait of him. The insatiable need of contemporaries and posterity to have his portrait before their eyes was thus given free rein to deform it in any direction.”[133]

## Gallery

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Portraits of Frederick the Great

* Painting as 24-year-old Crown Prince of Prussia by Antoine Pesne, 1736

* Painting as Crown Prince of Prussia by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, 1737

* Painting as Crown Prince wearing an ermine-lined, purple coronation cloak by Antoine Pesne, 1739

* Painting during his early reign by Antoine Pesne, early 1740s

* Painting as King of Prussia by Antoine Pesne, c.1745

* Painting by Johann Georg Ziesenis, 1763

* Painting by Johann Heinrich Christian Franke, 1764

* Painting by Anna Dorothea Therbusch, 1772

* Painting by Anna Dorothea Therbusch, 1775

* Painting by Wilhelm Camphausen, 1870

* Engraving by unknown illustrator, 1871

Sculpted Portraits of Frederick the Great

* Statue of Frederick the Great, marble by Johann Gottfried Schadow, 1793

* Frederick the Great with his Italian Greyhounds, bronze by Johann Gottfried Schadow, 1822

* Statue of Frederick the Great in front of Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin

* Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great, Unter den Linden, Berlin. Bronze by Christian Daniel Rauch, 1851

## References

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1. ^ Arnold Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen: Zeitgenössische Darstellungen, 2nd edition (Berlin: Nibelungen-Verlag, 1942), pp. 140–142 and plates 65–69.
2. ^ Melvyn New, "Das einzig authentische Porträt des Alten Fritz?: Is the only true likeness of Frederick the Great to be found in Hogarth's Marriage A-la-Mode? by Bernd Krysmanski" (review), The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Spring 2019), p. 198.
3. ^ Bernd Krysmanski, Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This, ART-dok (University of Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net, 2022). doi:10.11588/artdok.00008019
4. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 91–94, 96–98, 105–106, 107–115 and plates 5–8, 12–15, 25–26, 28–35.
5. ^ Helmut Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, in Oswald Hauser (ed.), Friedrich der Grosse in seiner Zeit (Cologne and Vienna: Böhlau, 1987), pp. 260–261, 263, 264–266 and figs. 3, 4, 7, 9, 10.
6. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 99–105 and plates 16–22.
7. ^ Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, pp. 262–263 and figs. 5–6.
8. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 118–121 and plates 38–39.
9. ^ Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, p. 266 and fig. 12.
10. ^ Karin Schrader, Der Bildnismaler Johann Georg Ziesenis (1717–1776): Leben und Werk mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog (Münster: LIT, 1995), pp. 101–119.
11. ^ See also Portrait of Frederick II of Prussia by Johann Georg Ziesenis.
12. ^ Frederick the Great portrait auctioned for €670,000
13. ^ Reimar F. Lacher, "Friedrich, unser Held": Gleim und sein König (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2017), pp. 9–11.
14. ^ Gottfried Hempel, Portrait of Frederick the Great, Bavarian State Painting Collections, Munich.
15. ^ Gleimhaus Museum der deutschen Aufklärung: Porträt Friedrichs des Großen, c.1760.
16. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 121–123 and plates 40–42.
17. ^ Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, pp. 257–258 and fig. 2.
18. ^ "Johann Heinrich Christian Franke, Portrait of Frederick the Great".
19. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, p. 122.
20. ^ Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, p. 267.
21. ^ Royal Collection Trust: Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo, Frederick II, King of Prussia (1763-69).
22. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 132–133 and plates 57–58.
23. ^ Anna Dorothea Therbusch, Frederick the Great (c.1775).
24. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 133–135 and plates 59–60.
25. ^ Ekhart Berckenhagen, Anton Graff: Leben und Werk (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1967), p. 19.
26. ^ Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, pp. 255–257 and fig. 1.
27. ^ Andrea M. Kluxen, Bild eines Königs: Friedrich der Große in der Graphik (Limburg an der Lahn: C. A. Starke, 1986), pp. 65, 69, 70, 76, 79, 81 and figs. 5, 7, 13.
28. ^ Princeton University Art Museum: Johann Georg Wille, Frederic II King of Prussia, engraving, 1757.
29. ^ Kluxen, Bild eines Königs: Friedrich der Große in der Graphik, pp. 63, 64, 66-68, 70, 79, 81 and figs. 4 and 6.
30. ^ Tilman Just, Georg Friedrich Schmidt, Chronologisches Verzeichnis seiner Kupferstiche und Radierungen (Universität Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net, 2021), cat. nos. 87 and 98.
31. ^ The British Museum: Georg Friedrich Schmidt, Fredericus III Rex Borussiae, engraved portrait of Frederick II of Prussia as Frederick III Elector of Brandenburg, 1743.
32. ^ Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett: Georg Friedrich Schmidt, Frederick II, King of Prussia, engraving, 1746.
33. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 126–128, 131–132 and plates 48–50, 56.
34. ^ Kluxen, Bild eines Königs: Friedrich der Große in der Graphik, pp. 50, 52, 55–56, 85, 95, 100, 105-123, 128–129, 131.
35. ^ Rainer Michaelis, “Friedrich der Große im Spiegel der Werke des Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki,” in Friederisiko: Friedrich der Große, exh. cat., Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, 2 vols (Munich: Hirmer, 2012), Die Essays, pp. 262–271.
36. ^ University of Oxford: Daniel Chodowiecki, Frederick the Great on his horse (after 1772).
37. ^ Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: Daniel Chodowiecki, Fridericus Magnus Rex Borussiae (1758).
38. ^ Frauke Mankartz: "Die Marke Friedrich: Der preußische König im zeitgenössischen Bild," in Friederisiko: Friedrich der Große: Die Ausstellung, exh. cat., Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, 2012 (Munich: Hirmer, 2012), pp. 210–215.
39. ^ The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Snuffbox cover with portrait of Frederick the Great (1712–1786), King of Prussia
40. ^ See the many commentaries cited in Krysmanski, "Voices from the 18th century prove it: The truth was very different", in Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This, pp. 10–13. doi:10.11588/artdok.00008019
41. ^ Letter of 8 January 1761 to Karl Wilhelm Ramler, cited in Gustav Berthold Volz, Friedrich der Grosse im Spiegel seiner Zeit, vol. 3 (Berlin: Verlag von Reimar Hobbing, 1901), p. 40.
42. ^ Briefe über die Kunst von und an Herrn von Hagedorn (Leipzig, 1797), p. 243, cited in Paul Seidel, "Die Bildnisse Friedrichs des Großen", Hohenzollern-Jahrbuch, 1 (1897), p. 107.
43. ^ Paul Seidel: "Die äußere Erscheinung Friedrichs des Großen," Hohenzollern-Jahrbuch, 1 (1897), p. 87.
44. ^ See Gerd Bartoschek, Antoine Pesne, 1683–1757: Ausstellung zum 300. Geburtstag (Potsdam-Sanssouci: Generaldirektion der Staatlichen Schlösser und Gärten, 1983).
45. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 91–92 and plates 5–6.
46. ^ See also Antoine Pesne, Frederick, Crown Prince of Prussia, as a child with his sister Wilhelmine (c.1714/15.
47. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 92–94, 96–98, 105–106, 107–110 and plates 7–8, 12–15, 25–26, 28–31.
48. ^ Portrait of Frederick, Crown Prince of Prussia, painting by Antoine Pesne, 1724.
49. ^ Portrait of Crown Prince Frederick, painting by Antoine Pesne, c.1736.
50. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 110–115 and plates 32–35.
51. ^ Portrait of Frederick II of Prussia, Hermitage, painting by Antoine Pesne, c.1743.
52. ^ Portrait of Frederick II of Prussia, painting by Antoine Pesne, 1745.
53. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, p. 115.
54. ^ See also Paul Seidel, Friedrich der Grosse und die bildende Kunst (Leipzig and Berlin: Giesecke & Devrient, 1922), pp. 186–187.
55. ^ Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, p. 265.
56. ^ Paul Seidel, “Die Kinderbildnisse Friedrichs des Großen und seiner Brüder”, Hohenzollern-Jahrbuch, 15 (1911), p. 29.
57. ^ Krysmanski, Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This, p. 10. doi:10.11588/artdok.00008019
58. ^ Johannes Kunisch, Friedrich der Große: Der König und seine Zeit (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2004), p. 27.
59. ^ "When reproducing Frederick’s nose, most of the artists seem to have oriented themselves to the classical Greek ideal of beauty. This becomes particularly clear in pure profile views, for example in a pastel by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff." See Krysmanski, "The classic straight nose in portraits", in Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This, pp. 16–17.
60. ^ Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, Crown Prince Frederick in profile (1737).
61. ^ See Krysmanski, Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This, p. 17, referring to an overview page of graphic portraits of Frederick in Edwin von Campe, Die graphischen Porträts Friedrichs des Großen aus seiner Zeit und ihre Vorbilder (Munich: Bruckmann, 1958), p. 94.
62. ^ Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, p. 262 and fig. 5.
63. ^ Jean Lulvès, Das einzige glaubwürdige Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen als König (Hanover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1913).
64. ^ August Fink, “Herzogin Philippine Charlotte und das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen,” Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch, 40 (1959), pp. 117–135.
65. ^ See Karin Schrader, Der Bildnismaler Johann Georg Ziesenis (1717–1776): Leben und Werk mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog (Münster: LIT, 1995), pp. 101–119.
66. ^ According to Arnold Hildebrand, it speaks against the fact that the king granted the painter a session, that "the picture does not correspond to the image of him that we have in our heads based on the reports of the man who was almost crushed by fate. ... Ziesenis has portrayed the king in a physically flattering manner", and he shows the 52-year-old "healthy, well-preserved, good-natured and jovial." See Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, p. 119.
67. ^ See Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg: Images of Frederick
68. ^ Cited in Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, p. 35.
69. ^ See Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg: Images of Frederick
70. ^ See Royal Collection Trust: Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo, Frederick II, King of Prussia (1763-69).
71. ^ Sir Christopher Clark, “Frederick II – Modest appearance”.
72. ^ Paul Seidel, Friedrich der Grosse und die bildende Kunst (Leipzig and Berlin: Giesecke & Devrient, 1922), p. 198.
73. ^ Saskia Hüneke, “Friedrich der Grosse in der Bildhauerkunst des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts,” Jahrbuch/Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, 2 (1997–1998) (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 2001), p. 61.
74. ^ Helmut Börsch-Supan, “Die Bildnisse des Königs,” in Friedrich Benninghoven, Helmut Börsch-Supan and Iselin Gundermann (eds.), Friedrich der Grosse: Ausstellung des Geheimen Staatsarchivs Preußischer Kulturbesitz anläßlich des 200. Todestages König Friedrich II. von Preußen (Berlin: Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 1986), p. XIII.
75. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 121–123 and plates 40–42.
76. ^ Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, pp. 257–258 and fig. 2.
77. ^ See Johann Heinrich Christian Franke, Frederick the Great saluting with his cocked hat, c.1763/64.
78. ^ Tim Blanning, Frederick the Great: King of Prussia (London: Penguin Books, 2016), pp. 349-350.
79. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 124–125 and plate 46.
80. ^ Jürgen Luh, Friedrich der Große in seiner Bibliothek, Sanssouci Palace, Prussian Palaces and Gardens, Potsdam.
81. ^ Anton Friedrich König, Frederick II in his library, watercolour on ivory, 1769.
82. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 126–128 and plates 48– 50.
83. ^ University of Oxford: Frederick the Great on his horse after 1772
84. ^ Johann Caspar Lavater, Physiognomische Fragmente, zur Beförderung von Menschenkenntniß und Menschenliebe (Leipzig and Winterthur: Weidmanns Erben & Reich; Heinrich Steiner & Compagnie, 1777), Dritter Versuch, p. 348.
85. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 132–133 and plates 57– 58.
86. ^ Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, p. 267 and fig. 14.
87. ^ Anna Dorothea Therbusch, Portrait de Frédéric II de Prusse (c.1775).
88. ^ Cited by Frauke Mankartz, “Die Marke Friedrich: Der preußische König im zeitgenössischen Bild,” in Friederisiko: Friedrich der Große, exh. cat., Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg (Munich: Hirmer, 2012), Die Ausstellung, p. 209.
89. ^ Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, pp. 267–270 and fig. 15.
90. ^ See Christoph Friedrich Reinhold Lisiewski, Frederick the Great (1782).
91. ^ See Gerd Bartoschek, “Gemeinsam stark? Anna Dorothea Therbusch und ihre Zusammenarbeit mit Christoph Friedrich Reinhold Lisiewsky”, in Helmut Börsch-Supan and Wolfgang Savelsberg (eds.), Christoph Friedrich Reinhold Lisiewsky (1725–1794) (Berlin and Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2010), pp. 77–84.
92. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 133–135 and plates 59–60.
93. ^ Ekhart Berckenhagen, Anton Graff: Leben und Werk (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1967), p. 19.
94. ^ Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, pp. 255–257 and fig. 1.
95. ^ See Stiftung Preußische Gärten und Schlösser Berlin-Brandenburg: König Friedrich II. von Preußen (1712-1786).
96. ^ Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis,” p. 257.
97. ^ See Antoine Pesne's portrait of Frederick II of Prussia.
98. ^ Ernst H. Kantorowicz, The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1957)
99. ^ Claudia Breger, "A Hybrid Emperor: The Poetics of National Performance in Kantorowicz's Biography of Frederick II," Colloquia Germanica, 35, nos. 3–4 (2002), pp. 287–310.
100. ^ Mankartz, "Die Marke Friedrich: Der preußische König im zeitgenössischen Bild," p. 210.
101. ^ In 1772, he wrote to Voltaire: "You will know that … neither my portraits nor my medals are like me." Cited in Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, p. 135.
102. ^ In 1769, Joseph II wrote to his mother Maria Theresa about the Prussian King he had met in Neisse: "He does not resemble any of the pictures you have seen of him ." Letter dated 29 August 1769, cited in Gustav Berthold Volz, Friedrich der Grosse im Spiegel seiner Zeit, vol. 2: Siebenjähriger Krieg und Folgezeit bis 1778 (Berlin: Reimar Hobbing, 1901), p. 213.
103. ^ Krysmanski, Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This, pp. 11–13.
104. ^ Hans Dollinger, Friedrich II. von Preußen: Sein Bild im Wandel von zwei Jahrhunderten (Munich: List, 1986), p. 82.
105. ^ Cited after Gisela Groth, "Wie Friedrich II. wirklich aussah," Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 November 2012, p. 11.
106. ^ Andrea M. Kluxen, Bild eines Königs: Friedrich der Große in der Graphik (Limburg an der Lahn: C. A. Starke, 1986), p. 34.
107. ^ a b Bernd Krysmanski, Das einzig authentische Porträt des Alten Fritz? Is the only true likeness of Frederick the Great to be found in Hogarth's 'Marriage A-la-Mode'? (Dinslaken, 2015), pp. 27-33, 55-58.
108. ^ "Die Werke Friedrichs des Großen, 7, S. uc_p14, Abb. 1". friedrich.uni-trier.de.
109. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 140–142 and plates 65–69.
110. ^ Michael Hertl, Totenmasken: Was vom Leben und Sterben bleibt (Stuttgart: Jan Thorbecke, 2002), pp. 159–163.
111. ^ According to art historian Bernd Krysmanski, "Frederick the Great disliked his own features. … Most of his portraits disgusted him. The reason was simple: he was convinced that he was ugly", because he had "a prominently hooked and aquiline nose, and little else to recommend him to connoisseurs of classical ideals of good looks". See Krysmanski, "Frederick the Great’s lack of good looks", in Das einzig authentische Porträt des Alten Fritz? Is the only true likeness of Frederick the Great to be found in Hogarth's 'Marriage A-la-Mode'? (Dinslaken, 2015), p. 46.
112. ^ Kluxen, Bild eines Königs: Friedrich der Große in der Graphik, pp. 76, 79 and fig. 13.
113. ^ Princeton University Art Museum: Johann Georg Wille, Frederic II King of Prussia, engraving, 1757.
114. ^ E. P. Riesenfeld, “Cavaceppis Büste Friedrichs des Großen”, Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst, n.s. 25 (1914), 57–60.
115. ^ Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 39, 123–24 and plates 43–45.
116. ^ Hüneke: "Friedrich der Große in der Bildhauerkunst des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts," p. 62.
117. ^ Krysmanski, “The Prussian engraver Georg Friedrich Schmidt as an informant?” in Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This, pp. 30–35.
118. ^ Frank Thadeusz, "Wie hässlich war der Alte Fritz?", Der Spiegel, no. 31, 26 July 2019.
119. ^ William Hogarth, Marriage A-la-Mode 4: The Toilette scene (1743-44). Detail: flautist.
120. ^ Krysmanski, Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This, pp. 22-26.
121. ^ Krysmanski, Das einzig authentische Porträt des Alten Fritz? Is the only true likeness of Frederick the Great to be found in Hogarth's 'Marriage A-la-Mode'?, ill. p. 28.
122. ^ Françoise Forster-Hahn, "Adolph Menzel's 'Daguerreotypical' Image of Frederick the Great: A Liberal Bourgeois Interpretation of German History," Art Bulletin, 59, no. 2 (June 1977), pp. 242–261.
123. ^ Kathrin Maurer, "Franz Kugler and Adolph Menzel's History of Frederick the Great (1842)," in Visualizing the Past: The Power of the Image in German Historicism (Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2013), pp. 118–144
124. ^ Hubertus Kohle, Adolph Menzels Friedrich-Bilder: Theorie und Praxis der Geschichtsmalerei im Berlin der 1850er Jahre (Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2001).
125. ^ Jost Hermand, Adolph Menzel: Das Flötenkonzert in Sanssouci: Ein realistisch geträumtes Preußenbild (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch, 1985).
126. ^ Krysmanski, "Menzel continues to idealise the king’s nose", in Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This, pp. 20-22.
127. ^ Several death masks hung on Menzel's studio wall, including that of the Prussian king. See Gisela Hopp, "Menzels 'Atelierwand' als Bildträger von Gedanken über Kriegsnot und Machtmissbrauch," Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, 41 (1999), supplement, pp. 131–138.
128. ^ Klaus Gehrmann, Dariusz Kacprzak and Jürgen Klebs (eds.), Friedrich der Große, Johann Gottfried Schadow, aus der Sammlung des Muzeum Narodowe w Szczecinie (Berlin: Schriftenreihe der Schadow Gesellschaft Berlin e.V., vol. XIV, 2011).
129. ^ "Category:Statue of Friedrich II of Prussia in Szczecin - Wikimedia Commons". commons.wikimedia.org.
130. ^ Frank Pieter Hesse and Gesine Sturm (eds.), Ein Denkmal für den König: Das Reiterstandbild für Friedrich II. Unter den Linden in Berlin / A Monument for the King: The Equestrian Statue of King Friedrich II on the Boulevard Unter den Linden in Berlin (Berlin: Schelzky & Jeep, 2001).
131. ^ Wieland Giebel (ed.), Das Reiterdenkmal Friedrichs des Großen, enthüllt am 31. Mai 1851 (Berlin: Berlin-Story-Verlag, 2007).
132. ^ Christian Daniel Rauch, Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great (1851).
133. ^ Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis,” p. 269.

## Bibliography

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* Helmut Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis,” in Oswald Hauser (ed.), Friedrich der Grosse in seiner Zeit (Cologne and Vienna: Böhlau, 1987), pp. 255–270.
* Edwin von Campe, Die graphischen Porträts Friedrichs des Großen aus seiner Zeit und ihre Vorbilder (Munich: Bruckmann, 1958).
* Paul Dehnert, “Daniel Chodowiecki und der König”, Jahrbuch Preussischer Kulturbesitz, 14 (1977), 307–319.
* Françoise Forster-Hahn, “Adolph Menzel’s ‘Daguerreotypical’ Image of Frederick the Great: A Liberal Bourgeois Interpretation of German History,” Art Bulletin, 59, no. 2 (June 1977), pp. 242–261.
* Gunther Hahn and Alfred Kernd’l, Friedrich der Grosse im Münzbildnis seiner Zeit (Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein Verlag; Berlin: Propyläen Verlag, 1986).
* Arnold Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen: Zeitgenössische Darstellungen, 2nd edition (Berlin: Nibelungen-Verlag, 1942).
* Saskia Hüneke, “Friedrich der Grosse in der Bildhauerkunst des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts,” Jahrbuch/Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, 2 (1997–1998) (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 2001), pp. 59–91.
* Andrea M. Kluxen, Bild eines Königs: Friedrich der Große in der Graphik (Limburg/Lahn: C. A. Starke, 1986).
* Hubertus Kohle, Adolph Menzels Friedrich-Bilder: Theorie und Praxis der Geschichtsmalerei im Berlin der 1850er Jahre (Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2001).
* Bernd Krysmanski, Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This, ART-dok (University of Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net, 2022). doi:10.11588/artdok.00008019
* Frauke Mankartz, “Die Marke Friedrich: Der preußische König im zeitgenössischen Bild,” in Friederisiko: Friedrich der Große, exh. cat., Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, 2 vols (Munich: Hirmer, 2012), Die Ausstellung, pp. 204–221.
* Rainer Michaelis, “Friedrich der Große im Spiegel der Werke des Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki,” in Friederisiko: Friedrich der Große, exh. cat., Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, 2 vols (Munich: Hirmer, 2012), Die Essays, pp. 262–271.
* Martin Schieder, “Die auratische Abwesenheit des Königs: Zum schwierigen Umgang Friedrichs des Großen mit dem eigenen Bildnis,” in Bernd Sösemann/Gregor Vogt-Spira (eds.), Friedrich der Große in Europa: Geschichte einer wechselvollen Beziehung, 2 vols (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2012), vol. 1, pp. 325–338.
* Paul Seidel, “Die Bildnisse Friedrichs des Großen,” Hohenzollern-Jahrbuch, 1 (1897), pp. 87–112.
* Paul Seidel, Friedrich der Grosse und die bildende Kunst (Leipzig and Berlin: Giesecke & Devrient, 1922).

## External links

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* Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg: Images of Frederick
* University of Oxford: Portraits of Frederick
* Frederick II - Modest appearance. Sir Christopher Clark about Charles Amédée van Loo’s Portrait of King Frederick II of Prussia
* GetArchive: Portrait Paintings Of Friedrich II Of Prussia