Friedrich Preller Sketchbook
Trained in Weimar and steeped in the rigorous classicism associated with its most celebrated resident, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Preller journeyed to Rome (1828-31), where he worked alongside Joseph Anton Koch, before returning to settle in Weimar and becoming the director of the city’s Freies Zeichen-Institut (Free Drawing Institute) in 1834. He continued to travel, venturing to rugged locales in Norway and the Alps; these dramatic landscapes introduced a more romantic note into his later work. His mature career featured a number of mural projects based on literary sources, such as his cycle of episodes from the Odyssey, designed in 1854-56 and executed in situ at what is now the Landesmuseum Weimar from 1865-69. Uwe Steinbrück has noted that there are very few surviving works by Preller from the 1860s when he was working in earnest on the Odyssey project. This sketchbook, which contains intimate depictions of Preller’s family members---his second wife, Jenny; his third son, Friedrich Preller the Younger; and his stepchildren—as well as landscape views, is a rare example of his work from the decade. The sketches are executed on leaves of light brown, mauve, and blue paper, and almost every page is filled, suggesting the artist kept it close at hand for a prolonged period, documenting his private life during a time of significant professional accomplishment.
Friedrich Preller
1804–1878
Sketchbook
1864
Thaw Collection
2003.44
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Front cover
Sketchbook
Thaw Collection
Inside front cover–p.[ ir]
![Inside front cover–p.[ ir]](https://www.themorgan.org/sites/default/files/facsimile/download/249712v_0002-0003.jpg){kind=link}
Frontispiece: Inscribed, in graphite, Erinerung an Jenny und [photo of a bearded man]
Thaw Collection
p.[ i verso]– folio 1 recto
![p.[ i verso]– folio 1 recto](https://www.themorgan.org/sites/default/files/facsimile/download/249712v_0004-0005.jpg){kind=link}
A woman sewing; Older woman wearing spectacles and a bonnet, viewed in profile.
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at lower right, 30 April
Folios 1 verso–2 recto
Full length view of a woman in an interior sewing.
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at upper right, 30 April
Folios 2 verso–3 recto
Three-quarter length view of woman embroidering gloves
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at upper right, 30 April
Folios 3 verso–4 recto
Woman sleeping on couch
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at left upper margin, d. 1 Mai
Folios 4 verso–5 recto
Seated woman sewing
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at upper right, d. 1 Mai
Folios 5 verso–6 recto
View of town and mountain
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at lower right, in the house, 3ten Mai
Folios 6 verso–7 recto
Study for “The Departure of Odysseus from the Island of Calypso”
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at upper right, d. 3 Mai
Folios 7 verso–8 recto
Two Monks conversing at a Well
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at upper right, d. 3 Mai
Folios 8 verso–9 recto
Full length portrait of a Carmelite abbot
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at upper right, d. 8 Mai; at lower right on plinth, Carmelit[er]
Folios 9 verso–10 recto
Woman sleeping
Thaw Collection
Folios 10 verso–11 recto
Landscape with large tree
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at left center; on verso, Im Güttmansdorfer Garten / Da steht einLlindenbaum ,/ Man träumt in seinen [sic] Schatten / Gar frischen Lebenstraum, / Und seine Zweige rauschen / So manches liebe Wort. / Man holt nach schwerem Leide / Sich neues Glück von dort. [translation: In the garden at Güttmansdorf/ there stands a linden tree, / One dreams in its shadow / An oh so fresh dream of life, / And its branches rustle / some dear words. / One takes for oneself after grave suffering / new joy from these.]
Inscribed at upper right, 14 Mai
Folios 11 verso–12 recto
Kirchensprung (Church well)
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at right margin, Kirchensprung, d. 18 Mai
Folios 12 verso–13 recto
Forest Landscape with Two Figures
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at lower right, 21 Mai
Folios 13 verso–14 recto
A Woman Asleep; A Woman Sewing
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at lower right margin, Carlsbad 19 Mai
Folios 14 verso–15 recto
Mountain landscape
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at lower right margin, [Hors]chensprung, d. 18 Mai
Folios 15 verso–16 recto
Three-quarter portrait of a woman wearing a bonnet
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at lower right, d. 21 Mai
Folios 16 verso–17 recto
House in wooded mountain landscape
Thaw Collection
Inscribed along bottom margin, am Freundschaftsaal 21 Mai
Folios 17 verso–18 recto
Town landscape
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at lower right, Ba[___], 13 Mai
Folios 18 verso–19 recto
Two women knitting and embroidering in a garden
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at lower right margin, [Wei]senthal, 13 Mai
Folios 19 verso–20 recto
Mountain landscape
Thaw Collection
Inscribed along bottom margin, [___] auf dem Zin[__]fan[__]znung 31 Mai
Folios 20 verso–21 recto
Portrait busts of two children
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at center lower margin, Weimar/ d. 13 Juni 1864
Folios 21 verso–22 recto
Sketchbook
Thaw Collection
Folios 22 verso–22 recto
Three women and one man
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at bottom, Frl. Winkelmann Jenny/ am Mühlbrunnen 22 Mai
Folios 22 verso–23 recto
Lützow’s Villa
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at lower right, Lützow’s Villa d. 25 Mai
Folios 23 verso–24 recto
Woman reading
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at bottom center, Clara Friedemann; at lower right, Weimar d. 12 Juni
Folios 24 verso–25 recto
Wartburg and Eisenath[?]
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at lower left, d. 17 Juni; at lower right, Wartburg &[?] Eisenath
Folios 25 verso–26 recto
Woman and girl in interior with a bust
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at lower left, Weimar / 25 Juni
Folios 26 verso–27 recto
Preller’s Son, Friedrich Preller the Younger
Thaw Collection
Inscribed at lower left, Weimar/ 26 Juni
Folios 27 verso–28 recto
Views of three women’s heads
Thaw Collection
Folios 28 verso–29 recto
“Less sick than [___]”
Thaw Collection
Inscribed along bottom margin, Weniger krank als [_]aul
Folio 29 verso–inside back cover
Sketchbook
Thaw Collection
Back cover
Sketchbook
Thaw Collection