Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 47

[cahn]

We haven't had a new post since before December 25, so obligatory Yuletide link to this hilarious story of Frederick the Great babysitting his bratty little brother, with bonus Fritz/Fredersdorf!

Comments

Re: Minor Peter Keith findings

[mildred_of_midgard]

Oh, that is interesting! It's consistent with what I'm finding, which is no mentions of paintings (but mentions of copper engravings) in the inheritance Peter left. And checking out the exact wording of Knobelsdorff's will, it says "alle meine Tableau, Kupferstiche und Bibliothecke" (emphasis mine). So if someone is selling the paintings off in 1753, it's got to be Peter.

Well, we know Peter needed the money, but maybe he also agreed with AW on whether these were worth keeping. :P

Do you have a citation for this? Is it in Trier? It's going in the essay!

Re: Minor Peter Keith findings

[felis]

It's not at Trier, I found it in Volz' edition of the Fritz-AW correspondence: Volz, Gustav [Hg.]: Briefwechsel Friedrichs des Großen mit seinem Bruder Prinz August Wilhelm, hrsg. u. eingel. v. Gustav Berthold Volz. Deutsch v. Friedrich v. Oppeln-Bronikowski, Leipzig 1927, page 216f

The letter is from December 7th, and here's the German, in case you want it:

Ich habe ein paar Bilder aus dem Nachlaß von Knobelsdorff angekauft, war aber erstaunt, so wenige geschmackvolle Stücke darunter zu finden. Bei einer ganzen Anzahl bezweifle ich, ob das Publikum sie so schön finden wird, wie der arme Verstorbene es sich einbildete.

And it does sound more like a collection, now that I'm looking at it again.

Well, we know Peter needed the money, but maybe he also agreed with AW on whether these were worth keeping. :P

Ha. I was also thinking that it might have been a question of space? I kind of doubt he had that much wall space to hang many of these, and keeping them in a dark closet somewhere doesn't seem practical, either.

Re: Minor Peter Keith findings

[mildred_of_midgard]

Thank you!

Ha. I was also thinking that it might have been a question of space? I kind of doubt he had that much wall space to hang many of these, and keeping them in a dark closet somewhere doesn't seem practical, either.

Oh, that's fair too! I was thinking he had both the house he was living in (and in which his mother-in-law had just died, meaning they had one less person living there than they had), as well as the Jägerhof, but who knows how that adds up in terms of space, compared to how large the collection was. Copper engravings are easier to store, it's true.

(I love that salon means that everyone knows to volunteer any information even tangentially related to Peter that they come across--I would *never* have found enough material for a biographical essay without all this help!)