Double Portrait of Princes Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia and Wilhelm zu Solms-Braunfels in a Cuirassier’s Uniform

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia (1794–1863) resided from 1821–48 in Düsseldorf in the Jägerhof (today’s Goethe-Museum) and was Prussia’s most senior representative in the Rhineland. As the Protector and collector of the Düsseldorf School of Painting, he commissioned the double portrait of himself and his step-brother (1801–1868) from W. von Schadow, Director of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. The latter started work in 1829 and completed the painting, considered one of his best, in summer 1830. Until recently, originally gifted to Friederike von Mecklenburg-Strelitz, mother of the two men and sister to Prussian Queen Luise, it adorned Schloss Marienburg in Hanover. With brilliant use of the style of the Old Masters, Schadow combined the portrait of a ruler with that of an image of Romantic friendship. Set against the backdrop of the Rhine with Burg Rheinstein, which the prince had rebuilt, the ‘new knights on the Rhine’ show themselves to be representatives of Prussia’s new national culture in the Rhineland. They thus demonstrate the strength of Prussia’s alliance with the Rhineland against French rule. (Bettina Baumgärtel)