Johann Georg Ziesenis (1716-1776)

Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was the brother of Duke Karl I. He enjoyed a distinguished military career: he was made General Major of the Prussian army in 1743, Generalleutnant in 1750, and was appointed Field Marshall of Prussia in 1758, and of Austria in 1766. During the Seven Years War he was commander-in-chief of the army in northern Germany against the French. He is shown here wearing the Cross of the Johanniter Order and the badge of the Order of ther Garter. He died unmarried in 1792.

Originally of Danish birth, Ziesenis worked at the courts of Pfalz-Zweibrücken and Mannheim before being appointed court painter to King George II in Hannover in 1760. The success of his style took him subsequently to the courts of Brunswick (1764-5, 1769, 1775), Dresden (1769), Copenhagen (1766) and the Hague (1765, 1768). The number of versions produced in his evidently efficient workshop probably obscures the true number of his autograph works. This particular portrait would appear to be the prime version of what was evidently a very popular portrait type of the Duke. Schrader (op. cit.) records several other versions, including those at Potsdam-Sanssouci, Darmstadt, Neues Palais and Celle, Bomann-Museum.

Provenance:
Braunschweig (1885-1895);
Braunschweig 1911, Inv. Nr. 60;
Blankenburg circa 1929, Inv. Nr. 0354

Exhibited:
Berlin, Friedrich der Grosse in der Kunst, 1912, no. 11;
Hanover, Jubiläumaustellung des Kunstvereins Hanover, 1932, no. 57

Literature:
P. Sidel and A. Amersdorffer in the exhibition catalogue,Friedrich der Grosse in der Kunst, 1912, no. 64, plate 41;
Probably K. Schrader, Der Bildnismaler Johann Georg Ziesenis 1716-1776, Munster 1995, p. 221, no. 169