THE PRINCESSES GROUP
On December 24, 1793, Frederick , who would later become King Wilhelm III of Prussia, married Luise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1776–1810); two days later, his brother Ludwig (1773–1796) married Friederike (1778–1841), Luise’s younger sister.
In 1795, the court sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow created a life-size clay model of the two crown princesses on commission from the Prussian King Frederick Wilhelm II, shortly after the two sisters married his sons. At the same time, a smaller version of the PRINCESSES GROUP was produced in “ biscuit porcelain ” for the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin; it is listed in the model book under model number 1246 in August 1796. In addition, the double statue of the two princesses was also executed in marble and completed in 1797. Not only the king, who chose the sisters as wives for his sons, but also other contemporaries were captivated by the two sisters’ youthful beauty.
"I regard the two young ladies as heavenly apparitions, the memory of whom will never fade for me either"
This fascination was not limited to the subjects themselves; Schadow’s work also caused quite a stir during its presentation at the Berlin Academy Exhibition in September 1797. There, the sculptor exhibited the life-size marble version of the PRINCESS GROUP (at times in the vestibule of the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin), while smaller versions were produced for sale at biscuit porcelain by the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin. An elegant austerity—entirely in the spirit of Classicism—combined with the grace of the subject continues to enchant viewers to this day and is considered a major work of early Berlin Classicism, much like Schadow’s Quadriga on the Brandenburg Gate from 1793.
ELABORATE HANDCRAFTING
The Royal Porcelain Manufactory continues to produce this exquisite group of figurines entirely by hand. For this purpose, 88 individually cast porcelain pieces are joined together and fired to create a new work of art in elaborate artistic portrait work.
