Lot 125
  • 125

Johann Heinrich Ramberg 1763-1840 Hamburg

Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Johann Heinrich Ramberg
  • portrait said to be of baron münchhausen, seated in profile, with his dog
  • signed, inscribed and dated on the mount: Aus dem Gedächtnis skizziert von JH Rmbg 1801

  • pen and gray ink, with brown and red ink and watercolor and touches of gouache 

Catalogue Note

According to a notation on the back of the old frame, this is a portrait of Baron Münchhausen, presumably the fabled Hieronymus Karl Friedrich, Freiherr von Münchhausen (1720-97) who had served with the Russians against the Turks, but retired in 1760 and lived on his estates at Bodenwerder in Hanover. He apparently 'used to amuse himself and his friends, and puzzle the quidnuncs and the dull-witted, by relating extraordinary instances of his prowess as a soldier and sportsman' (Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition, 1910-11, vol. 19, p.2). These stories were used by his friend, Rudolf Erich Raspe, as the basis of his Adventures of Baron Münchhausen, first published in the mid-1780s. The book was expanded and published in various subsequent editions, achieving immense popularity throughout Europe and making the Baron's name even today a by-word for the incredible in storytelling. Ramberg's inscription records that he drew the likeness from memory.