Wilhelm von Kobell
Mannheim 1766 – 1853 Munich
Wolfgang Heribert von Dalberg (1750-1806) in Schloss Herrnsheim, 1787
Watercolor and gouache on its original mount
58.5 x 36.7 cm
Signed and dated lower right “W. Kobell, 1787”
LITERATURE
Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter, 1929, p. 201, ill.
Exhib. cat. Mannheim 1931, Städtisches Schlossmuseum Mannheim 1931, Ferdinand, Franz and Wilhelm Kobell, p. 15, cat. no. 65A.
Exhib. cat. Karlsruhe 1961, Badischer Kunstverein, Aus Karlsruher Privatbesitz 1790-1940, cat. no. 87
Siegfried Wichmann, Wilhelm von Kobell, Monograph and Critical Catalog raisonné, Munich 1970, cat. no. 59, ill. p. 170.
Exhib. cat. Mannheim 1993, Museum für Kunst-, Stadt- und Theatergeschichte des Reiß-Museums, Von Mannheim nach München: Die Künstlerfamilie Kobell, p. 39, cat. no X.
PROVENANCE
Von Dalberg family, Schloss Herrnsheim
Cornelius Wilhelm Karl Freiherr von Heyl (1874-1954)
Philipp Herrmann, Karlsruhe (1899-1968)
Private collection, Munich
Wolfgang Heribert von Dalberg (1750-1806), brother of Carl Theodor and Johann Friedrich von Dalberg (see the companion work), was director of the Mannheim National Theatre from 1778. He played a major role in the history of German theatre of the early Enlightenment. In 1784 Dalberg premiered Friedrich von Schiller's plays "Fiesco", "Die Räuber" and "Kabale und Liebe".
Also his adaption of Shakespeare's plays constitutes a significant contribution to the German Shakespeare renaissance. From 1788-1793, he commissioned Ludwig von Skell to redesign the baroque park of Schloss Herrnsheim creating an English landscape garden.