The Historical Portrait of the 17th-18th century in Latvia

Exhibition in the History Museum of Latvia

Historically, portrait paintings have primarily  memorialized the rich and powerfull. Over time, however, it become more common for middle-class  patrons to commission portraits of their families and colleagues.

During the Baroque and Rococo periods (17th and 18th centuries, respectively), portraits became even more important records  of status and position.

The period from the last quarter of the 16th century till the middle of the 17th century, when Latvia was touched by tendencies of Nordic Renaissance and the trends of Mannerism spread, in sense  of stylistic influences is on of the most interesting periods in the history of Latvian art. In the middle of the 17th century in portraiture there appeared the traits of the Baroque taste. In the Baroque age the significance of secular portrait increased. The main customers were the Dukes, noblemen, clergymen and rich city dwellers of Courland.

In the exhibition I was impressed from the portrait of an unknown man of the von Taube family (1670s), which represents the compositional type, widespread in the Baroque age - "a portrait of a knight". The portrayed  nobleman is depicted cased in armour, thus accenting the nobility of the family and its longstanding origin. The portrayal of the nobleman is supplemented with the coat of arms of the family and an inscription, which explains the posts of the  portrayed person in the ducal service.

Portait of unknow man of the von Taube family.

17.th and 18.th centuries - time of Ernst Johan von Biron and Gotthard Kettler. The boom of the Baroque age portraiture  in the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia dates to the middle and the second half of the 18th century - the rule of thr Dukes Ernst Johann von Biron, when there worked Leonhardt Schorer, Friedrich Hartman Barisien and Johann Gottlieb Becker, as well  as other less known painters.

Ernst Johann von Biron (1690-1772) - was a Duke of Courland and Semigallia (1737) and regent of the Russian Empire (1740).

During 17.th and 18th.centuries there worked painters - Leonhardt Schorer (1715-1777) , Johann Gottlieb Becker (1823-1893) and anothers. The portrait painter L.Schorer born in Konigsberg, favoured by the Courland nobility, who in 1736-1737 has been working in Dresden, in about 1744 settled in Courland.  The paintings of L.Schorer fascinate with a realistic, unusually expressive characterisation of the portrayed person, expressive stylisation, which sometimes even become almost grotesque.

L.Schorer.  Portrait of the Baron Christoph Alexander (I) von Taube.
Portrait of Katarina von Bismark

Author: Johann Gotlieb Becker. Friderica Adolphina von Schlieben  und Soehne .
www.commons.wikimeida.org

Mathias Szwiczek (1601-1654) was a german painter.


Painter Mathias Czwiczek. http://www.preussen-chronic.de/

Friedrich Hartman Barisien (1724-1796) . The native town of the most outstanding F.H. Barisien is Coburg in Saxony. He mastered his skills in Dresden, for a short time stayed in Russia and in 1770 came to Courland, in order to join the service of the Duke Peter von Biron and become the court artist. When portraiting the Duke Peter and the members of his family, F.H. Barisien like the painters  of other European courts, used  the schemes of parade clothes charasteristic to Baroque age, repeated the approbated compositions and influenced fom the etched samples ot the works of French artists H.Rigaud, N.de Largilliere, frequently painted replicas of his works.

There are some portraits from Gotthard Kettler dinasty.  He was the last Master of Livonian Order and the first Duke of Courland and Semigallia (Herzogtum Kurland und Semgallen).

Source: Catalog of the History Museum of Latvia.