1878 Cabinet 8

1878
Floor plan of the first floor

East wall

South wall

West wall


Frankfurt
painting

Christian Georg Schütz’s large-format views of the Römerberg and the Main harbour brought the visitors of 1878 back to the time of Goethe, a century earlier.

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At the end of the eighteenth century, Schütz’s paintings were very popular in Frankfurt, as were the works of Johann Friedrich and Johann Ludwig Ernst Morgenstern, the horse paintings of Johann Georg Pforr, the landscapes of Friedrich Wilhelm Hirt, and the genre pieces by Justus Juncker and Johann Conrad Seekatz. Johann Friedrich Städel and Johann Georg Grambs, one of the first Board members of the Städel, had collected these works as well. Grambs’ portrait – painted by his foster son Carl Friedrich Wendelstadt, director of the Städel from 1817 until 1840 – was prominently displayed on the end wall. It hung amidst paintings such as Morgernstern’s “Baroque church”, which Grambs had donated to the museum. It is therefore tempting to consider this cabinet as a “memorial” to Johann Georg Grambs. Yet, already in 1879, Grambs’ portrait appears to have been replaced by a newly acquired painting by Johann Heinrich Roos, considered to be a possible self-portrait (inv.-no. 1130).