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The Week in Germany: Culture March 31, 2008
Exquisite Treasures: Rare Collection of Early Meissen Porcelain on Show at The Frick Collection in New York
Although the formula for manufacturing true porcelain was developed in China by the sixth century, it remained a consuming mystery in the West until its discovery in 1708 by alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682-1719) under the patronage of August II (1670-1733), elector of Saxony and king of Poland. In 1710, the king established a royal manufactory outside of Dresden in the town of Meissen, and the porcelain created there has been known by that name ever since. Early Meissen porcelain and its decoration remained experimental into the 1740s. Examples from this period are particularly rare and have been highly sought after. This spring, The Frick Collection in New York is presenting a selection of Meissen porcelain comprised of some 100 examples from The Arnhold Collection, one of the greatest private holdings of early Meissen assembled in the 20th century. The exhibition is the museum's first on Meissen porcelain, which was not collected by founder Henry Clay Frick who focused instead on Chinese porcelain and objects from the French Sèvres manufactory. It is made possible, in part, by generous support from the Arnhold Foundation. The Arnhold Collection was formed in two phases and in two cities. It was established in Dresden between 1926 and 1935 by Lisa (née Mattersdorf; 1890-1972) and Heinrich Arnhold (1885-1935) with a focus on tablewares and vases and objects of royal or noteworthy provenance.
Lisa Arnhold emigrated to the United States, and the collection was brought over in 1940. Under their son Henry, it has continued to develop in New York, following his parents' interest, while also expanding in scope over the decades to reflect a broader range of objects produced by the manufactory in its early years. “For many years, I have had the good fortune to know Henry Arnhold and his family's important Meissen holdings,” Anne L. Poulet, director of The Frick Collecion said via a press statement. “Henry has offered colleagues and scholars access to the works by appointment, as Mr. Frick did with his own collection before the museum opened,” she added. “Now, with our major exhibition and the accompanying book, a much broader public will have the opportunity to view these exquisite porcelain treasures. Visitors will enjoy a cross-section of the manufactory's early production, while also being able to contemplate a family's collecting history over time, a subject particularly suited to the Frick,” said Poulet. A family collection established in pre-war Dresden
Heinrich Arnhold, trained as a lawyer and a member of a powerful banking family in Dresden, and his wife, who had studied medicine, were married in 1914 and became deeply involved in the cultural and intellectual life of the city. With friends in the world of contemporary architecture and design, they came to love German Expressionism and formed a significant collection of paintings and sculpture by Oskar Kokoschka, Käthe Kollwitz, Ernst Barlach and Emil Nolde.
Their interest in porcelain may have stemmed, in part, from the fact that Heinrich served on the boards of 13 porcelain and ceramic firms with which his bank was affiliated. He and Lisa began to focus on the acquisition of pieces from the early period at Meissen, choosing, almost exclusively, wares and vases rather than figures. The collection grew to include large vases, pieces from table services, and tea, coffee, and chocolate services. Founded by Augustus II, the porcelain manufactory at Meissen was one of the many brilliant artistic and architectural creations sponsored by the king who made Dresden a major cultural center in the early 18th century, as well as one of the most beautiful baroque cities in Europe. Augustus II – called Augustus the Strong because of his legendary physical strength – reigned from 1694 until 1733, and, during this time, one of his passions was collecting Chinese and Japanese porcelain imported to Europe by Dutch merchants. In order to house this enormous collection, in 1717 he commissioned his favorite architect, Matthäus Daniel Pöppelman (1662-1737), to transform a palace on the Elbe River. Eventually called the Japanese Palace and destined only for the display of porcelain, not as a residence, the building continued to be enlarged to accommodate new acquisitions – including Meissen porcelain – until Augustus's death.
One of the most ambitious projects undertaken at Meissen was a porcelain menagerie of lifesize animals and birds conceived as interior decoration for the king's Japanese Palace. Several hundred were required though less than 300 were successfully fired before the project was abandoned. A superb example known as the Great Bustard was a gift to Heinrich Arnhold in 1935. The figure was designed by Johann Gottlieb Kirchner (1706-after 1737), the director of the modeling studio at Meissen in the early 1730s. The bird stands with its head gracefully bent back over its wing and is supported by a tree trunk covered with oak branches, leaves and acorns. To mold and fire a figure of this size was a technical tour de force. Most of the sculptures, as with this one, have a number of firing cracks produced in the kiln. The surface has a clear glaze over which unfired oil colors were applied. The colors on most of the sculptures, including the Great Bustard, were later removed. Scope of collection expands under Henry Arnhold Although Henry Arnhold has generally followed his parents' collecting preferences for vases and wares, in recent years he has acquired several significant figural groups made at Meissen. Beginning in the mid-1730s, the factory produced a series of figures from the Italian commedia dell'arte, most of which were modeled by the master sculptor Johann Joachim Kändler (1706-1775) and often based on prints. The group Pantalone and Columbine has a theatrical quality, with the figures seemingly in centrifugal movement as Pantalone strides forward, his head turned toward Columbine, her hand on her hip and her skirts flying. The group demonstrates the mastery achieved at the Meissen manufactory by the 1730s, not only in modeling but also in painting using a broad palette of overglaze enamel colors. (from a press release courtesy of The Frick Collection)
The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain, 1710–50, runs from March 25 through June 29, 2008, at The Frick Collection. It is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, available in mid-April in the Museum Shop and online at shopfrick.org. A free public lecture by Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, curator of the Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain, will be held at the museum on Wednesday, April 2 at 6 p.m. The Frick Collection is located at 1 East 70th Street, New York, New York 10021; phone: 212-288-0700. For more information go to www.frick.org |
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