FRIEDRICH VON AMERLING | Andreas Amerling in a Top Hat

Estate of the artist (sale: Dorotheum, Vienna, 3-6 May 1916, lot 33)

Theodor Abelmann, Vienna (possibly acquired at the above sale)

Louise Lea Abelmann (née Steinsberg), Vienna (widow of the above, by April 1937)

Acquired from the above by the Deutsches Reich for the Sonderauftrag Linz (after 1938, inv. no. 493)

Recovered at Altaussee, Austria by the Allies and transferred to the Munich Central Collecting Point on 15 October 1945 (inv. no. 9584)

Transferred to the office of the Ministärpresident from the Munich Central Collecting Point

on 10 June 1949

Landesmuseum Hannover (on loan from the Federal Republic of Germany, 1966-2019)

Restituted by the Federal Republic of Germany to the heirs of Louise Lea Abelmann in 2019

Günther Probszt, Friedrich von Amerling - der Altmeister der Wiener Porträtmalerei, Zurich, Leipzig, Vienna, 1927, p. 138, no. 733 

Painted in 1848, this dashing portrait of the artist's brother epitomises Amerling's Biedermeier style, while also showing the influence of Sir Thomas Lawrence, the great British society portraitist whom Amerling met in London in 1827 and whose work he admired for the rest of his career.