Albrecht Adam

Felix Georg von Voß (1801-1881), Schloss Schorssow, Pomerania, by 1828;
Anonymous sale, Cologne, Kunsthaus Lempertz, 22 November 1973, lot 302 (one of a pair with La chasse au renard);
Dr. Gustav Rau (1922 - 2002), Stuttgart;
His estate sale ('Rau UNICEF sale'), London, Bonhams, 5 December 2013, lot 16;
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner.

The canvas has been lined. There is some minor hairline craquelure visible on the painting surface, notably some stretcher marks along the left, top and right border. Ultra-violet light reveals small scattered spots of retouching. The picture is in otherwise good condition and ready to hang. Presented in a gilt frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Painted in 1828, Return from the hunt is a masterful example of Albrecht Adam's oeuvre. Coming back from a hunt are three gentlemen riding regal horses and accompanied by their hounds. In the background, an avenue of poplar trees leads to a neoclassical villa facing the lake. The attention to detail and the scale of the composition are on a par with his famous battle scenes and matched the expectations of a demanding commissioner.

The present work was commissioned around 1828 as one of a pair of hunting pictures by Felix Georg von Voss, the owner of Schloss Schorssow whose family held substantial estates in Pomerania and Prussia. In the background of the picture is a large, nine-bay country house, shown from the south-east side across the lake identifiable as Schloss Schorssow, built on the banks of Lake Haussee in Pomerania in North-East Germany. The Schloss is in an area of lakes, mountains and forests of great natural beauty known as “the Switzerland of Mecklenburg”, where it functioned, amongst other things, as a hunting lodge. In the fifteenth century the estate belonged to the von Maltzahn family before passing into the possession of the von Moltke family, archdukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp. Between 1790 and 1803 the building was remodelled in the fashionable neoclassical style with two projecting wings as shown in our picture by Hofjagdmeister von Moltke, a notable sportsman who appears to have sold the estate to the von Hahn family during the Napoleonic Wars.  Felix Georg von Voss (1801-1881) who commissioned the picture, came from one of the most prominent noble families in Mecklenburg, acquired the joint fiefdom of Schorssow in 1827 following his marriage in 1826 to Louise Wilhelmine, Countess von Hahn (1805-1833). 

It is likely that the commissioning of this picture, in the following year, 1828, was connected with the acquisition by von Voss of the Schorssow estate.  The estate was eventually inherited by their only son, Eugen Felix von Voss (1827-1890), who himself was a keen huntsman and became Chamberlain and Rittmeister (Master of Horse) to the Austrian court.  Towards the end of the nineteenth century Schorssow was acquired by the von Thiele Winkler family, who added the coat-of-arms seen today over the front entrance, and in the 1950s Schorssow was used as a school and a municipal office, before being acquired by the present owners in 1995, who restored the Schloss and opened it as a luxury hotel in 1997. 

Albrecht Adam began as an apprentice confectioner and, having trained under Christoph Zwinger (1744–1813) in Nuremberg, moved to Munich in 1807 to continue his studies. He subsequently moved to Milan as court painter to Eugène de Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy under his stepfather Napoleon.