110613

Carl Grunelius 1898

Head and shoulders in semi-profile to the left, head turned slightly to the viewer, wearing a shirt, stock and red hunting jacket

Oil on canvas [presumed], [dimensions unknown]

Inscribed lower left: László Fülöp E. / Cronberg / ’898

In 1896, Wilhelm Preetorius [111115], a Rhineland industrialist, invited de László to Mainz to paint his two daughters after being impressed by the artist’s portraits of Prince Ferdinand [3937] and Princess Maria Louisa of Bulgaria [3715] at the Millennium exhibition in Budapest. De László soon became acquainted with the prominent families of the area, including the Grunelius family, and was thus commissioned to paint the portrait of Daniela [7451], the five-year-old daughter of the Frankfurt banker Carl Grunelius, a picture that was greatly to enhance his reputation.

The present portrait was painted at the family house in Kronberg near Frankfurt in October 1898 while de László was painting Daniela, and presented to the sitter as a token of gratitude for the original commission.^[1] It is very likely that the artist also painted the sitter’s wife Marie-Adèle at the same time, though the portrait remains untraced [111539]. In a letter from 14 October 1898 to de László, Carl Grunelius writes: “an extraordinary pleasure indeed, a joy that is so great that it shames me and almost hurts at the same time. I’m talking, as you may have guessed, about your ‘dedication’ of my portrait!^[2] What should I say? I should seriously scold you but your idea is so moving, and as I know you, so heartfelt and amicable that I’m disarmed and can just express my most cordial thanks, for me as well as for my wife, who could not have had any greater joy, she is quite wild [ganz toll] about the painting – and I had always refused so far to have my portrait painted!”^[3] 

In the same letter the sitter gives his permission to exhibit “the paintings” both in Paris and in Budapest, although of the two portraits only Daniela’s was eventually shown at the Paris Salon. De László’s friend Gábor de Térey writing in the Pester Lloyd in December 1898 gives a description of the paintings of Carl and Daniela Grunelius, while anonymously exhibited at the Winter Exhibition at the Hungarian Fine Art Society, but, possibly misled by the “English” hunting garb shown in the present portrait, mistakes them for English sitters. He writes: “The portrait of a noble Englishman is particularly striking. László has captured the nasty peculiarity of this clean-shaven, typically English face with its cold light-blue eyes. This is true realism.”^[4] 

Other relations were also painted by de László: the present sitter’s sister-in-law Adèle Françoise van Loon, née Tachard [7409] in 1901, Emma von Grunelius [110615], the wife of his cousin, and her sister Martha Mumm von Schwarzenstein [110811] in 1907. Carl Grunelius was described as the latter’s “protector since earliest youth” in the parody edition of Die Woche produced by, among others, de László to celebrate Martha’s marriage. De László also painted Emma’s and Martha’s uncle, Baron Alfons Mumm von Schwarzenstein [110923] in 1903.

Peter Carl Grunelius was born in Frankfurt am Main on 23 April 1858, the son of Andreas Wolf Grunelius (1831-1912) and his wife Sophie, née Wachs (1838-1912). From 1886 until his death he was partner of the prominent Frankfurt banking house Grunelius & Co. He was also a member of the board of Heddernheimer Kupferwerke and the Lahmeyer Elektrizitätswerke AG and from 1906 sat on the Frankfurt city council with a particular interest in the department for Art and Antiquities. He was ennobled in 1900.

On 6 June 1882 Carl Grunelius married at Niedermorschweiler in Alsace his second cousin, Marie-Adèle Tachard (1861-1948), the daughter of Albert Tachard, French Minister in Brussels, and Wilhelmine Grunelius. A son, Oskar, was born the following year; Daniela in 1893.

Emperor Wilhelm II was a good friend of Carl and Marie-Adèle and during his summer-stays at Schloss Friedrichshof he often came for unannounced visits to their villa in Kronberg, sometimes bringing guests such as the Greek royal family or the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) when he stayed in Kronberg with his sister the Empress Friedrich.

Carl von Grunelius died in Frankfurt on 23 December 1911.

PROVENANCE:

Sold Auktionshaus Arnold, Frankfurt, Germany, 25 May 2018, lot 541

EXHIBITIONS:

•Hungarian Fine Art Society, Budapest, Winter Exhibition (Téli Kiállítás), 1898-99, no. 231

LITERATURE:        

•Térey, Gábor de, in: Pester Lloyd, 2 December 1898, Supplement

•Schleinitz, Otto von, Künstler Monographien, n°106, Ph A. von László, Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld

and Leipzig, 1913, p. 28f.        

•Parody edition of Die Woche, (produced to celebrate the marriage of Martha von

Mumm to Joachim von Manteuffel), 5 August 1907, ill. p. 38

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, 1939, p. 154

•Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Adelige Häuser B, Band XXI , 1995, ill. p. 141

•NSzL150-0063, letter from de László to Lippich, 20 September 1898

•NSzL150-0064, letter from de László to Lippich, 12 October 1898

•DLA029-0021, Carl von Grunelius to de László, 14 October 1898

•DLA162-0042, Pesti Hírlap, 3 December 1898, p. 2

•DLA090-0222, press cutting (Hungarian FAS, Winter exhibition)

AG & CWS 2008