Joseph von Führich

Kratzau/Bohemia 1800 - 1876 Vienna

Genoveva, c. 1824

black chalk, heightened in white

38,9 x 56,6 cm

signed lower right: Jos. Führich inv.

LITERATURE:

H. v. Wörndle: Josef Führichs Werke, Vienna 1914, no. 198.

Ulf Dingerdissen: Genoveva von Brabant – ein romantisches Schlüsselthema in der bildenden Kunst des 19. Jh., Berlin 2018, p. 178 (ill.), 179.

PROVENANCE:

Collection F. Stein, Munich

G. J. Manz, Regensburg

Hugo Helbing

Collection Ernst Jürgen Otto, Celle (Lugt 873b)

Collection Michael Berolzheimer, Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Auction Weinmüller, March 1939, no. 583

Clemens-Sels-Museum, Neuss, 2014

Restituted to the heirs of Michael Berolzheimer, 2018

The drawing is related to sheet no. 12 from the series of pictures "Bilder zu Tieck's Genovefa von J. Führich" (1824-25, National Gallery Prague), but is more painterly in its hatching and heightening in white.

The motif goes back to the legend of Genoveva of Brabant, who lived in the middle of the 8th century. According to the legend, she was sentenced to death in the absence of her husband, Count Palatine Siegfried, after she spurned efforts by the governor Golo, who then accused her of adultery. However, the executioner spared her life and set her free, whereupon she lived with her son for six years in a cave in the deep forest. Her husband Siegfried finally found her after his return.