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197

Georg Anton Abraham Urlaub (Kitzingen 1744 - 1788 Mainz)

Currency:EUR Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:40,000.00 - 60,000.00 EUR
Georg Anton Abraham Urlaub (Kitzingen 1744 - 1788 Mainz)
Georg Anton Abraham Urlaub (Kitzingen 1744 - 1788 Mainz) Four Portraits:1) Friedrich Karl Joseph Freiherr von und zu Erthal (1719 - 1802), Archbishop of Mainz and the last Prince Elector; 2) Lothar Franz Freiherr von und zu Erthal (1717 - 1805), Kurmainzischer Geheimer Rat, Kammerherr, and Obersthofmeister,1802 Governor of Aschaffenburg; 3) Sophie Gräfin von Coudenhove (1747 - 1825) nee Gräfin von Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg, upper left signed & dated, "Urlaub 1784"; 4) Theresia Freiin von Bettendorf(?), upper left signed & dated,"Urlaub 1784"; all pastel on paper, each 64 x 48 cm, in splendid orig., carved and gilt Classicist frame; (Wo).€ 40.000 - 60.000 US $ 39.600 - 59.400 Provenance: documented as formerly owned by the Archbishop and Prince Elector of Mainz, Friedrich Karl Joseph Freiherr von und zu Erthal; following his death owned by the family of his trusted niece, Gräfin Sophie von Coudenhove; later owned Eduard Coudenhove-Erthal, Graz; subsequently: Austrian private collection Literature: the provenance of all four paintings is listed in Thieme Becker Künstler Lexikon,1999, vol.33/34, p.569; Eduard Coudenhove-Erthal ,"Die Kunst am Hofe des letzten Kurfürsten von Mainz", in :"Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte", vol. X, Vienna 1935, p.56 -86, w/ 4 plates. The Archbishop and Prince Elector Erthal(1) is shown wearing a pectoral decorated w/ brilliants suspended from a red ribbon, and the cross of the order of German Knights. The archbishop's brother, Lothar Franz Freiherr von und zu Erthal (1717 - 1805) (2), held numerous high posts and was a renowned art collector, bequeathing a valuable library, along with 21.000 prints and 380 drawings to the Graphisches Kabinett in Aschaffenburg Portrait of Sophie von Coudenhove(3). this countess was a historically somewhat controversial figure owing to her considerable political influence with her uncle the Archbishop of Mainz, who considered her his confidante. Following the death of her husband, her opponents spread the rumour that her relationship with her uncle might have been not merely platonic. A brilliant and politically engaged woman, she suggested to her uncle that he should join the alliance of German princes in 1795, despite numerous bribery attempts by the Austrian faction. Erthal commissioned the Würzburg painter Georg Anton Abraham Urlaub to produce these portrait in 1784, in keeping with early Classicism's preference for simplicity and restraint. Urlaub had worked in Würzburg, Bamberg, Nürnberg, and Augsburg, before he was appointed court painter in Mainz. The four portrait were most likely created for Schloß Schöntal near Aschaffenburg. Until its partial destruction by French revolutionary forces, Mainz was by far the wealthiest German archdiocese and it was Archbishop Erthal who founded the University of Mainz and its Academy of Sciences.
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