Lot 1114 | Frederik Wilhelm Martersteig | Luther Addressed by the Knight Frundsberg Before Entering the Diet of Worms: "Mönchlein, du gehst einen schweren Gang" ("Little monk, you walk a difficult path")

MARTERSTEIG, FREDERIK WILHELM
Weimar 1814 - 1899

Title: Luther Addressed by the Knight Frundsberg Before Entering the Diet of Worms: "Mönchlein, du gehst einen schweren Gang" ("Little monk, you walk a difficult path").
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Mounting: Relined.
Measurement: 59 x 92cm.
Notation: Signed lower left: "Martersteig".
Frame: Framed.

Literature:
F.v. Boetticher: Malerwerke des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, vol. I.2, p. 983, no. 15.
Here with the provenance information Grand Duke of Saxony-Weimar and exhibition information Dresden Akademische Kunstausstellung 1849;
B. Savoy and F. Nerlich (eds.): Pariser Lehrjahre. Ein Lexikon zur Ausbildung deutscher Maler in der französischen Hauptstadt. Vol. 1: 1793-1843, Berlin/Boston 2013, pp. 194-197.

Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

Originally trained as a genre painter in Dresden and Düsseldorf, the Weimar painter Friedrich Wilhem Martersteig was drawn to Paris in 1838. His dislike of academic Nazarene painting was one of the reasons why he extended his visit to the French art metropolis, originally planned as a brief flying visit, to a ten-year stay. These were the painter's most productive years, culminating in a commission from Louis Philippe for Versailles. However, the Revolution put a stop to these plans so that Martersteig returned to Weimar in 1848.
In Paris he developed into a history painter, copied the great works in the Louvre and became a pupil of Paul Delaroche. Through his teacher and patron he came into contact with the important representatives of French history painting and cultivated a friendship with Horace Vernet. He regularly participated with works at the salons in Paris and was also able to supply the Berlin academy exhibitions. Especially the various works in his cycle on the life and work of Martin Luther made him a name in his homeland, as well, so that he was commissioned by the Grand Duke of Weimar to paint works for the Wartburg. The painting of Luther's arrival in Worms shown here is one of these works, which was very well known contemporarily but was long considered lost.
Martersteig, who later changed his name to Mardersteig, combined the painting tradition of the great history painters of France with the themes of his homeland and later executed further historical cycles also on Ulrich von Hutten and Theodor Körner.