111115

Wilhelm Preetorius II 1897

Head and shoulders in three-quarter-profile to the left, wearing a brown jacket, dark tie, white wing collar, a lapel red pin and a moustache

Oil on canvas [including frame], 66 x 62 cm (26 x 24 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: ZVEI [sic] STUNDEN IN BPEST [Two hours in Budapest] / 1897 / László

Sitters’ Book I, f.15: W. Preetorius aus Mainz

Private Collection

Wilhelm Preetorius II was born on 6 June 1852, son of Wilhelm Preetorius (1824-1902) and his wife, Anna Maria, née Kimbel (1824-1901)^[1], of a prominent Mainz family of furniture makers.^[2] According to de László he was “a typical high-spirited Rheinlander, with a good heart, who lived for his family and his work, which was house-decoration on a large scale.”^[3] Indeed, Wilhelm Preetorius was a well-known and important man in Mainz. From 1880 until 1919 he was partner and manager of the world-famous furniture and interior decorating company August Bembé,^[4] which furnished several castles in Europe, the saloons of ocean-liners, the Hotel Adlon in Berlin and the Reichstag.^[5] He was also a member of several associations and clubs, held minor political positions and – together with his brother, Generalstaatsanwalt (attorney general) Dr Karl Jakob Preetorius (b. 1854) – was a member of the supervisory board of the famous Mainz champagne producers Kupferberg. He was also appointed Geheimer Kommerzienrat (Privy Trade Councillor) and Honorary Spanish Consul in Mainz. On 12 August 1877 he married Marie Emilie Friederike Michell (1857-1934) in Paris. They had two daughters, Wilhelmine 'Elma' (1878-1964) and Friederike Marie 'Friedel' (1884-1938) and a son, René, who committed suicide in 1915.    

While returning from Roumania and Bulgaria in 1896, where he had supervised the decoration of the royal palaces, Wilhelm Preetorius had seen de László’s portraits of Prince Ferdinand [3937] and Princess Maria Louisa of Bulgaria [3715] at the Millennium Exhibition in Budapest. He was so impressed that he contacted the artist immediately to ask whether he would also paint “mortals of a lower standing,”^[6] and invited him to Mainz to paint his two daughters. László accepted the invitation but the visit had to be delayed as “both my little ones caught the whooping cough in Gastein and are thus looking frail and swollen.”^[7] In September 1896, however, Preetorius confirmed that “in the meantime my little ones’ conditions have improved a lot and they have developed a dreadful appetite and appear thus so well that you can start your journey in the first half of October.”^[8] He believed that the two girls would make a good subject for a painter but warned de László “to lower your expectations regarding my ‘elegance’, so that you won’t be too disappointed once you see the original. Imagine me without the deceptive hat [he had sent photos in a previous letter] but with a huge bald head instead.”^[9] Eventually, as de László wrote in his memoirs: “on 15 October Pretorius [sic] met me at Mainz station and took me to an hotel near his house. I learned afterwards that he considered it wiser not to ask me to stay in his house, since his elder daughter, Elma, was very attractive and rather a flirt.”^[10] De László stayed for three weeks and much enjoyed his visit. “Pretorius, who was well known in that part of the Rhine, particularly in Frankfort and Wiesbaden, did his best for me, and I secured several commissions for three-quarter length portraits at an honorarium of 2000 marks. I became an honorary member of his club in Mainz and made sketches of some of their prominent members.”^[11]  It is uncertain to which portraits he is referring but through these contacts de László got to know the Grunelius, Mumm von Schwarzenstein and de Ridder families, and the ensuing commissions helped to establish his reputation in Germany.

Until Wilhelm Preetorius’s death on 16 October 1924 the two families stayed in close touch, exchanging letters, presents and photos and meeting each other on occasional visits. De László even helped the Preetorius family to overcome the economically different times of the German hyperinflation of 1923. In a letter from 11 November 1923 Wilhelm Preetorius wrote: “These are times of hardship that you can’t possibly imagine and which will bring us a dreadful winter. If only it were over! Meanwhile you must come and visit us, so that [...] we should be able to thank you again for the pleasure you gave us with your sumptuous present. We could accomplish a great deal with it – above all, a stay of several weeks in Bavaria!”^[12] 

De László painted members of the Preetorius family on several occasions. During his stay in Mainz in 1896 he painted Elma three times [3346], [12564] & [111274] and Frieda twice [111112] & [111113]. The present study was made in 1897 in Budapest, according to the inscription, in a two-hour sitting. The same year in Mainz he painted a second study of Wilhelm Preetorius wearing a hat [111176]. One of these two portraits was exhibited at the Galerie Schulte in Berlin in 1898. De László painted Friedel in 1910 [10879]. He also painted her mother Marie Emilie [111114].

EXHIBITED:        

•Galerie Schulte, Berlin, 1898 (either the present portrait or [111176])

LITERATURE:        

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 153-154, 158, 277

•DLA070-0033, letter from Wilhelm Preetorius to de László, 12 September 1896

•DLA070-0023, letter from Wilhelm Preetorius to de László, 22 September 1896

•DLA116-0045, letter from Wilhelm Preetorius to de László, 11 November 1923

AG 2008