Mats Rehnström
[Humboldt] 
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Portrait of Alexander von Humboldt woven in silk, after a portrait by Emma Gaggiotti-Richards. He is portrayed within an oval border with the text ”Africa – America – Oceania – Europa – Asia”. In the background is an erupting volcano. Below the border are pictured ornamental leaves, a shooting star, three horns and two books with ”Cosmos” and ”Alexander von Humboldt” written on them. Signature woven in silk to lower right of the frame ”Lyon NR[?] 1856”. Cut to oval shape to fit framing. Size within frame 41,5 x 54,5 cm. Framed and glazed in an elaborate contemporary gilt oval frame made by F. Schormann, Krefeld, with his printed label on back. Size of frame 60 x 73 cm. Slight aging, minor scratches and some small damage to the frame, but in most attractive original condition.
The art of weaving figures and portraits in silk was developed in Lyon during the 19th century, starting with the invention of the ”programmable” loom by Joseph-Marie Jacquard in the beginning of the century. He was himself portrayed in this technique in 1839. Although the proto-computer method of using punched cards saved a lot of time and effort for the worker at the loom, the process of codifying a picture into punched cards was very time consuming. The technique was reserved for the most famous men of the day, such as Humboldt, and in the same year, George Washington. The original for this silk woven image of Humboldt was probably the portrait painted in 1855 by the Italian-English artist Emma Gaggiotti-Richards, now in the Archiv der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. This was in turn engraved by at least two different artists, and one such engraving was obviously used as model for the silk portrait. However, the volcano in the background is not present on the engravings. In all likelihood, the silk portrait was designed by Nicolas Romain (1808–58), who added the volcano, and produced by François Carquillat (1803–84). We have found the portrait in two locations: at the Metropolitan museum of art, attributing it to Nicolas Romain (1808–58), and at the library of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, reading the signature as ”IR” but not providing any name.
7250,- EUR Sachgebiete: Deutschland, Humanismus, Naturwissenschaften, Porträts, Textilien Kontakt zum
Differenzbesteuert/Subject to margin taxation
