Inventory

Provenance

Thomas E. Waggaman, Washington D.C. (and his sale, American Art Association, New York, 25 January-3rd February 1905, lot 90)

Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 9 April 2002, lot 39

Catalogue note

After his initial training at the Academy in Prague, Josef Führich (1800-1876) was eager to complete his studies in Italy and in the late autumn of 1826, sponsored by the mastermind of the Restoration, Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (1773-1859), he headed South. On the way, he stopped in Vienna and—drawn to the city’s artistic treasures and the household of August (1767-1845) and Friedrich Schlegel (1772-1829), both foremost literary figures of German Romanticism—remained in the Austrian capital for several months. In January 1827, he continued his journey to Rome, where he immediately joined the German artists gathered around Joseph Anton Koch (1768-1839). Yet it was the encounter with Johann Friedrich Overbeck(1789-1869) that proved most momentous, and soon, the young artist “literally worshipped the ground on which Overbeck stood.” When the opportunity arose to assist with the frescoes of the Casino Massimo, he did not hesitate and stepped into the Lukasbund legacy. Once returned home in 1829, Führich would become one of the most important Nazarenes of his generation.

​Although Führich enjoyed notable success in the arena of religious painting and left an indelible mark on the era’s pursuit of monumental mural decoration, he achieved his greatest influence in the graphic medium, and soon acquired the reputation of a “theologian with the pencil.” Inspired by Albrecht Dürer and his idol Overbeck, he was particularly interested in substantial print cycles, and already in Rome began working on one of his earliest series, The Triumph of Christ, an ambitious sequence of eleven images. Although Führich’s own notes suggest that he had finished the preparatory drawings in 1831 and thus shortly after his return from Italy, he delayed etching until 1839.

A dramatic highlight of the series was Christ depicted as Salvator Mundi enthroned on a chariot (Cat. 3a). He is adored by his mother, the Holy Virgin, who, seated across from her divine Son, assumes her role as intercessor on behalf of those in need and those who have sinned. Depicted in attentive adoration, she also models the attitude Führich wants us to adopt as well. The Savior’s iconic appearance and supernatural calm call for devotion, while forming a stark contrast to the commotion unfolding around him. Three colossal animals, harnessed in front of the elaborate carriage, pull with all their might, the strain of their task written clearly on their faces, while the garments of the angel assisting them flutter wildly. Behind them, four sumptuously dressed men support the effort by pushing the heavy vessel forward, they, too, challenged to the edge of their strength. The discrepancy between the chariot’s rather light build and the energy needed to move it forward points to the image’s allegorical meaning, the dedication it takes to pursue a righteous path, the path of imitatio Christi. Part of that path is the guidance provided by the teachings of the Church, here represented by the four Evangelists in the shape of their symbolic animals—Mark, the lion; Luke, the bull; John, the eagle; and Matthew, the angel—and their followers, the four Church Fathers, with St. Jerome, easily recognizable in his scarlet cardinal attire, and Pope Gregory wearing his three-tiered crown as the most prominent.

Rather rare in 19^th-century art, the motif of the triumphal procession had enjoyed great popularity in the Renaissance, and Führich was directly influenced by Titian’s panoramic woodcut Triumph of the Faith (Cat. 3b). However, the Nazarene did not emulate the continuous, uninterrupted flow of Titian’s multipartite print, which altogether runs a stunning 107 inches in length. Instead, he spread his procession across eleven separate plates, subsequently united in a bound book. With an added explanatory note for each print, which reveals the work’s nature as an Erbauungsbuch, as an edifying publication aimed at mass appeal and missionary outreach.The work served its purpose well, and even Führich’s main patron, Prince Metternich was “so penetrated by the depth of thought and aspiration of this young artist,” his wife reported, “that his eyes filled with tears as he tried to explain each figure. God keep and protect this mind full of goodness and piety!”

The project’s overwhelming success attracted further commissions, and a year later, in 1840, the artist executed his first version of the cycle’s core motif—the triumphant Christenthroned on a chariot—in oil. The decision to choose a gold background reflected the era’s new interest in Byzantine art, and did so with a most stunning effect. It lends an otherworldly glow to the picture, while highlighting the subtle color palette of red, white and rose, and the focus on the fabrics’ materiality. The work was acquired by Athanasius Count Raczyński, a Polish aristocrat in the diplomatic service of the Prussian king, whose collection of contemporary art, then housed in Berlin, was among the most important of its time. Here, the painting elicited immediate attention. It certainly made an impression on George Eliot (1819-1880), who had met Führich in Rome and later seen the painting on her honeymoon in 1854. Twenty years later, she eternalized the picture in her novel Middlemarch (1871/72), where it returns as The Saints drawing the Car of the Church. The motif’s popularity encouraged Führich to paint a replica, the one here at hand, also on panel but slightly larger than the Raczyński version.

Cat. 3 Figures:

Cat. 3a Joseph Führich, The Triumph of Christ, 1839. Book with eleven etchings in black on white wove paper, 35.8 x 53.6 x 1 cm, Gallerie Bassenge, Berlin.

Cat. 3b Titian, Triumph of Christ, c. 1513, woodcut, 38.2 x 53 cm (plate), The New York Public Library, New York.