Anton Graff Winterthur 1736 - 1813 Dresden

Collection of the Prince Reuss j.L., Schloss Thallwitz.

Both paintings are a bit darker in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests. Both paintings are unlined and stretcher marks are visible to the front. The paint layer is in both paintings stable and in good condition, no damages are visible, except for some scattered pinpoint paint losses in the lady's portrait. Both show a dense and coarse craquelure pattern and are covered with a dirty and yellowed varnish layer. Discoloured retouchings are visible in the background of both portraits. Inspection under UV-light confirms the aforesaid and reveals extensive retouchings in the right part of the background in both portraits. Furthermore a very few minor spots in the lady's face, low neckline, arm and hand, and one retouched spot next to her right arm; no retouchings become apparent in the male portrait. Offered in original Rococo frames, in good condition. (JD)
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Carl Sigismund von Arnim (1700-1773) was Royal Polish and Saxon chamberlain, general of the cavalry,  Russian lieutenant general, and Saxon ambassador to Russia (1750-51). He was a knight of the Russian order of St. Andrew's, which was the highest order at the time. The order was founded by Czar Peter the Great in 1696. The sitter is shown wearing a blue sash with the insignia.  
His wife Henriette Charlotte von Arnim, born Gräfin von Hoym (1726-1766) at Schloss Thallwitz, was the daughter of Ludwig Gebhard Graf von Hoym and the second wife of Carl Sigismund von Arnim. The couple got married in 1746.

Another version of the portrait of Charlotte von Arnim is recorded in E. Berckenhagen's catalogue raissoné on the artist in the Staatliche Museen Heidecksburg, Rudolstadt (inv. no. M 543).¹ This painting was also shown at a monographic exhibition in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in 1963.²

1. E. Berckenhagen, Anton Graff: Leben und Werk, Berlin 1967, p. 53, cat. no. 26.  
2. B. Becker, Anton Graff (1736-1813), exhibition catalogue, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin 1963, p. 80, cat. no. 10, reproduced fig. 10.