Prince Heinrich XIV

The portrayed (1749–1799) was the second son of Count Heinrich XI von Reuss zu Oberund Untergreiz. In 1778, the Emperor Joseph II raised the family to the hereditary right of Imperial Prince. Greiz now rose to the status of capital and residence town of the Principality of Reuß Elder Line. Heinrich XIV  – Count and Lord of Plauen, Lord of Greiz, Kranichfeld, Gera, Schleiz, Lobenstein – lived there only occasionally, in his position as Imperial (Royal) Field Marshal-Lieutenant and Imperial Envoy Extraordinary, he lived mainly at the Royal Prussian court in Berlin beginning in 1785. In the residence town, the prince regularly visited literary salons. Around 1790, presumably at the salon of Henriette Herz, he became acquainted with Caroline Esperance Marianne Meyer (1770–1812), the daughter of a banker, with whom he apparently lived in an illegitimate (morganatic) marriage beginning in June of 1797. During the French campaign in late summer of 1792, Heinrich XIV received Johann Wolfgang Goethe for an extended conversation about his theory of colours. It the late 1790s, the prince also set Goethe’s poetry to music.The composition, with its lowered perspective, deep horizon, and animated cloudscape does justice to the aesthetic category of the sublime, a baroque figure signifying grandeur that was favoured by contemporaries. The fashionably attired imperial envoy extraordinary wears a narrow-waisted, double-breasted riding jacket with close-fitting sleeves, a style that enjoyed great favour around 1789, in England as well as in France. The pensive, amiable face, as well as the casual leg pose of the stroller are borrowed from contemporary English portrait painting. Here is a “natural” depiction, free of pathos, of a seemingly unconventional gentlemen. Anton Graff, court painter of the Electorate of Saxony, probably met the prince in Berlin, where he presumably also produced drawings in preparation for this imposing painting, which was completed in Dresden in 1789. Extending only as far as the knees, the portrait was more expensive than usual. Anton Graff was a gifted painter who catered to the German-speaking elite during the Enlightenment. He created circa 2,000 portraits in his studio, located at Dresden’s Altmarkt. Rainer Michaelis | 200 Masterpieces of European Painting - Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 2019SIGNATUR / INSCHRIFT: Bez. auf der Rückseite: Anton Graff pinx: / 1789