112232

VERSO

Preparatory work

German Emperor Wilhelm II, King of Prussia 1909

Standing full-length in uniform his right arm resting on a horse

Oil on board, 94 x 68.6 cm (37 x 27 in.)

Inscribed top left: 137 [white paint]

Indistinctly inscribed lower left: [a partially rubbed out inscription in the artist's hand]  

Sitters’ Book I, f. 82: Wilhelm / I.R. II / XII 1908. [on the opposite page, a photograph of three people, inscribed by the artist verso: 1909 / Aug: / Wilhelmshöhe / während eines / ausfluges mit / dem Kaiser (during an excursion with the Kaiser)]

Studio Inventory, p. 25 (137 rev.):  Study of Kaiser Wilhelm II with horse. A Study for large picture, painted in Berlin.

Private Collection

This is a study of the Emperor William II, a preparatory sketch for his formal equestrian portrait dated 1910 [4952]. Painting on the other side of a board which had already been used was not exceptional in the artist's practice. De László would keep unframed pieces of artist's board in his studio, ready to make a quick sketch or even a considered study portrait. A similarly unusual alliance is that of the portrait of Princess Victoria, daughter of Edward VII with a portrait sketch of Count Albert Mensdorff on the back [10303].

The architecture in the background in the present sketch is very slight, but does indicate the triumphal arch in the centre of the colonnade behind the Neues Palais, which is also evident in the final portrait. There exist two further preparatory sketches on board in oil, very similar to the present one, but painted in more detail [5044] & [11817].

The finished portrait of the Emperor is in the collection of the Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten, Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam, in Germany.

LITERATURE:

Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 268-69

CC 2011