The exhibition “The Historical Portrait. 17th-19th Century Portraits from the Collection of the National History Museum of Latvia” offers an insight in a unique artistic heritage while also depicting individuals who have been important in the history of Latvia.
Around the mid-17th century, elements of the Baroque style began to appear in portraits, and the importance of secular portraits increased. The paintings were mostly commissioned by dukes of Courland, nobility, clergy and wealthy townsmen. Only a few of the portraits that once decorated the interiors of ducal palaces and manor houses have survived.
The exhibition features four portraits from the von Taube gallery of portraits at the Ērberģe manor house, painted in the 17th and 18th century. The portrait of an unknown man of the von Taube family (1670s) represents a composition that was typical during the Baroque period – the “portrait of a knight.” The nobleman is shown wearing armour, and that emphasises the noble nature of his family and its ancient origins. The estate also displayed a 1719 portrait of Friedrich Wilhelm von Taube, which was produced by H. C. Leuttner as a copy of an original that was painted in 1665 by an unknown artist. This again confirms the popularity of “knight’s type” portraits in the 18th century. The depiction of the nobleman is supplemented with the coat of arms of the family and an inscription, which explains the post of the portrayed person in the ducal service.
Baroque portraiture particularly flourished in the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia in the middle and latter half of the 18th century – the rule of the Dukes Ernst Johann Biron and Peter von Biron, when there worked Leonhardt Schorer, Friedrich Hartman Barisien, Johann Gottlieb Becker, and other, less known portrait painters whose works are presented in this exhibition.
Leonhardt Schorer (1715-1777) was very popular among the nobility of Courland. Born in Königsberg, he worked in Dresden in 1736 and 1737 and settled in Courland around 1744. Most of his artworks are parade portraits of local aristocracy, and they are fascinating because of their realistic and unusually expressive portraiture of the depicted person, with expressive stylisation that sometimes borders on the grotesque. Around 1751, he painted the portrait of Katharina von Bismarck, sister of Duchess Benigna Gottlieb. After the arrest of Ernst Johann von Biron, she was exiled along with her husband, Ludolph August von Bismarck, but later she was exonerated. After her husband’s death, Katharina returned to Jelgava from Ukraine, lived a very ascetic life, engaged in charity and, in 1775, established a shelter for noble, but poor young women and widows. The painting depicts Katharina in ornate, but reticent clothing with a high neckline, no jewellery and a headdress similar to that of a nun.
The outstanding portraitist Friedrich Hartman Barisien (1724-1796) was born in Coburg in Saxony. He studied in Dresden, spent some time in Russia, and moved to Courland in 1770 to become the court painter for Duke Peter von Biron. Portraits of Peter von Biron and his family members feature typically Baroque parade portrait schemes and tested compositions that were used by Barisien and other royal court painters in Europe at that time. These were influenced by French artists such as Hyacinthe Rigaud, Nicolas de Largillière, Louis-Michael van Loo, Jean-Marc Nattier, and others, who produced etchings. The royal court artists often painted replicas of their own work.
In the middle and latter half of the 18th century, the portraitist Johann Gottlieb Becker from Königsberg was active in Courland. Of importance is his 1743 portrait of Gerhard von Nolde, who owned the Lielgramzda manor and financed the construction of the Gramzda Lutheran church. The portrait was initially the part of the interior of the church. An inscription on the pedestal, in the upper part of which the coat of arms of the family is depicted, tells about the initiation of the building of the church in 1740 and “successful and blessed completion in 1744”. Von Nolde is shown in full height on a neutral background, with blueprints for the church building in his hand. He is serious and full of self-respect, as though he was aware of the importance of his work for future generations.
The genre of the portrait took on a leading role in the local Latvian world of art during the first half of the 19th century. Nearly all local artists, as well as those who only spent some time in the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire painted portraits. Local nobility were their primary clients, but as the wealth of civil community increased, some of them wished to demonstrate their prestige by commissioning their own portraits.
During the Biedermeier period, producing portraits of children became popular. It is represented in the exhibition by the 1858 double portrait of Adda and Lulla von Pistohlkors by Karl Ferdinand Wilhelm Krieger (around 1800-after 1860) from Berlin.
Dresden-born Julius Döring (1818-1898) studied at the Dresden Academy of Art, but worked in Jelgava from 1845 until the end of his life. In 1849, he produced portraits of Johann Friedrich Wilhelm von Hahn and Adelheide Agnes Marie von Hahn.
Portraits of members of the civil community are represented here by paintings showing the Botschagow (Бочагов) and Nasarow (Назаров) families. Portraits of Iwan Botschagow and his wife, Elena (late 1820s) are interesting from an iconographic perspective, because the portraits show that traditional apparel remained common among Russian merchants in Rīga. Iwan is seen in a typical dark coat and with a typical haircut. Elena is in a dark dress with a headdress that is tight on her head. The reticence is reduced just a bit by a golden earrings and the white textile that she is holding.
In 1842, daughter Nadezhda married a merchant from Tver, Iwan Nasarow. The portraits of the couple were produced by an unknown artist, but it is thought that they were painted a few years after their marriage. The Nasarows had seven children. The oldest daughter, Elena, died on November 23, 1863, of tuberculosis. Shortly before then, around 1860, a portrait of her was painted by Johann Leberecht Eggink (1784-1867). She is seen as a young and lovely girl, and the portrait has certain elements of representation.