Deutsche Zeichenkunst aus zwei Jahrhunderten. 1760 bis 1960. Aquarelle, Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik aus der Sammlung W.B. Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle, 1967, cat. no. 91 („Selbstbildnis“)
Literature and illustration
Auktion 87: 19./20. Jahrhundert. Ostasiatica. Veduten. München, Karl & Faber, 1963, no. 801, ill.p. 151 („Selbstbildnis des Künstlers“) / Carla Schulz-Hoffmann: Die Sammlung Sofie und Emanuel Fohn. Eine Dokumentation. Künstler und Werke. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. Vol. XI. München, Hirmer, 1990, cat. no. 37 („Selbstbildnis des Künstlers")
When Franz Nadorp arrived in Rome in 1828, he was 34 years old. The self-portrait entitled ‘Nadorp se stesso Roma’ shows him at approximately this age. The style is meticulous and elaborated down to the finest details. Every curl is lively, every beard hair individually modelled. The contours are not sharply defined. Delicate shadows in shades of pink and blue breathe life into the face and give the drawing a painterly quality. A blue-green cap tames the artist's typically wild mane of hair. The shirt and bow tie are only hinted at in pencil, without watercolour. The expression on his face is serious. But it is the eyes, which seem to penetrate the viewer, that give the portrait its character. The slightly furrowed brow and intense gaze underline the artist's desire to depict more than a true-to-life image of himself. The external appearance of the romantic artist's portrait becomes a mirror of the emotional world and inner life, thus taking on a new meaning at the beginning of the 19th century.
The Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome preserves a collection of portraits of German artists in Rome, which has not yet been published in its entirety and was donated by the German Artists' Association in 1832. This first artists' album alone contains 140 portraits and lists 178 names of the portraitists documented. In addition to Franz Nadorp, Friedrich Overbeck, Carl Philipp Fohr and Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, for example, not only drew themselves, but also each other. The collection of artist portraits forms a map of names, connections, ties and friendships. Their number is astonishing. This collection, painted, drawn and sculpted, forms a unified whole. ‘Purity, honesty, conventionality and loyalty in the lesser ones, truth, obsession, profundity, sometimes even suffering in the expression of the outstanding minds, but hardly ever pose, affectation or excessive self-confidence are characteristic of them’ (Hans Geller, 1952). LJM
Pencil and watercolour on heavy paper (watermark: [JWha]tman). 17,2 × 12,8 cm
(6 ¾ × 5 in.). Signed, titled and inscribed lower left: Nadorp se stesso Roma. [3100]
Provenance
Sofie and Emanuel Fohn, Rome / Walter Bauer, Fulda (acquired 1963 at Karl & Faber, Munich, thence by descent to the present owner)
Deutsche Zeichenkunst aus zwei Jahrhunderten. 1760 bis 1960. Aquarelle, Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik aus der Sammlung W.B. Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle, 1967, cat. no. 91 („Selbstbildnis“)
Literature and illustration
Auktion 87: 19./20. Jahrhundert. Ostasiatica. Veduten. München, Karl & Faber, 1963, no. 801, ill.p. 151 („Selbstbildnis des Künstlers“) / Carla Schulz-Hoffmann: Die Sammlung Sofie und Emanuel Fohn. Eine Dokumentation. Künstler und Werke. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. Vol. XI. München, Hirmer, 1990, cat. no. 37 („Selbstbildnis des Künstlers")
When Franz Nadorp arrived in Rome in 1828, he was 34 years old. The self-portrait entitled ‘Nadorp se stesso Roma’ shows him at approximately this age. The style is meticulous and elaborated down to the finest details. Every curl is lively, every beard hair individually modelled. The contours are not sharply defined. Delicate shadows in shades of pink and blue breathe life into the face and give the drawing a painterly quality. A blue-green cap tames the artist's typically wild mane of hair. The shirt and bow tie are only hinted at in pencil, without watercolour. The expression on his face is serious. But it is the eyes, which seem to penetrate the viewer, that give the portrait its character. The slightly furrowed brow and intense gaze underline the artist's desire to depict more than a true-to-life image of himself. The external appearance of the romantic artist's portrait becomes a mirror of the emotional world and inner life, thus taking on a new meaning at the beginning of the 19th century.
The Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome preserves a collection of portraits of German artists in Rome, which has not yet been published in its entirety and was donated by the German Artists' Association in 1832. This first artists' album alone contains 140 portraits and lists 178 names of the portraitists documented. In addition to Franz Nadorp, Friedrich Overbeck, Carl Philipp Fohr and Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, for example, not only drew themselves, but also each other. The collection of artist portraits forms a map of names, connections, ties and friendships. Their number is astonishing. This collection, painted, drawn and sculpted, forms a unified whole. ‘Purity, honesty, conventionality and loyalty in the lesser ones, truth, obsession, profundity, sometimes even suffering in the expression of the outstanding minds, but hardly ever pose, affectation or excessive self-confidence are characteristic of them’ (Hans Geller, 1952). LJM
