Oil on canvas. Signed lower left. 1874. 125.5 x 181 cm.

A large historical painting and major work depicting armed figures kneeling in an open field in prayer before battle. The painting was created following a lengthy journey by the artist in 1873, which took him first to Munich to visit the director of the Academy of Fine Arts, Wilhelm Kaulbach, and then on to Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Mainz, and Bonn before returning to Düsseldorf. It is thus an early major work by the painter, who was just 22 years old at the time and had only had his own studio for a year. The painting is listed in Thieme/Becker, Vol. 3/4, p. 156. It was part of the Alexander Koch Collection. This refers to the Darmstadt publisher Alexander Koch (1860 Cologne –1939, Darmstadt), the publisher of the magazine “Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration,” one of the most important art magazines of its time, which shaped Germany’s interior design culture. Alexander Koch also owned a large art collection, most of which he was forced to sell in 1935. The Nagel auction house auctioned off the collection at that time. Scratches along the bottom edge.

A German history and portrait painter of the Düsseldorf School, he studied at the Academy there under Eduard Bendemann, eventually becoming his private student. He was also a recipient of the Austrian Knight’s Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph and the Order of the Red Eagle. All lots with a reserve (starting price) of at least 1,500€ are cross-checked against the Art Loss Register database.

Bibliography: Thieme/Becker.

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