- 41
Monogrammist H*** B*** (active during the 17th Century)
Description
- Portrait of Duke August the Younger (1579-1666) of Brunswick - Wolfenbuttel
- signed and inscribed centre left : H.B. fecit A.C. 10 Jan.: 1666./ Seleni AEtatis Anno 86¾
- Oil on canvas, in a painted oval, in a carved wood frame
- 76.5 by 62.5 cm.
Catalogue Note
It has been suggested that the Monogrammist may be identifiable with Heinrich Boiling, who was active in Brunswick and Wolfenbüttel during the 17th century. Other works by him are recorded at the Residenz-Schloss in Brunswick.
Duke August the Younger (1579-1666) was a ruler of considerable erudition. After university he completed a Grand Tour of Italy, Malta, the Netherlands and France. He was regarded by his contemporaries as an outstanding collector and scholar, and it has been said that more poems and verses were dedicated to him than any other ruler of the Baroque period. From 1635 when the reunited Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was assigned to him, he resided at Brunswick, returning to Wolfenbüttel in 1642 when the city was freed from imperial occupation. He rebuilt and renovated the city and the Augustadt (a residential district for craftsmen) including the great Joahnniskirche (1661-4). His greatest achievements as a collector were his library of over 135,000 works in 31,000 volumes, housed in the Bibliotheca Augusta, now the Herzog August Bibliothek, and his collection of clocks.
The sitter is shown wearing the suit of armour made by William Pickering at Greenwich for Henry, Prince of Wales, and later presented to Duke Friedrich Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1612. The armour itself remained in Germany until 1945 and is now in a private collection.
Provenance:
Fideikommis-Galerie 1905;
Blankenburg 1911 Inv. Nr. 125;
Braunschweig 1917.
Exhibited:
London, Tower of London, Exhibition of Arms, Armour and Militaria lent by HRH the Duke of Brunswick, 1952 , no. 256.
Literature:
Probably K.G. Saur, Allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon, Munich/Leipzig 1996, vol. XII, p. 306.