Kulturstiftung Dessau-Wörlitz Germany

Wörlitz Palace, completed in 1773, was commissioned by Leopold III of Anhalt-Dessau (1740-1817), upon his return from his Grand Tour of Europe, and built by the architect Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff. It is regarded as the first Neoclassical building in Germany. Over a period of more than forty years, several other palaces and gardens were laid out near the towns of Dessau and Wörlitz, forming the largest complex of English-style gardens in Germany and continental Europe.

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Royal Residence
Kulturstiftung Dessau-Wörlitz

Country
Germany - Deutschland

Period of silk creation
Vers 1760/1770 ?

public textile

Wörlitz Palace, main floor, Chinese Room No. II
© Kulturstiftung Dessau-Wörlitz

Name of the residence and name of the room:
Wörlitz Palace, Chinese Room No. II
Schloss Wörlitz, Chinesisches Zimmer No. II

Period of creation:
ca. 1760/70?

Materials and technique:
Hand-painted silk in multiple colours

Manufacturing location:
Lyon?

Silk, hand-painted in multiple colours
© Kulturstiftung Dessau-Wörlitz

The painted celadon-green silk, recently restored, is located in Wörlitz Palace (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany), in the so-called ‘Chinese Room No. II’. Located in the main floor, the room was furnished in the early 1770s.

We do not really know anything about this hand-painted silk, in multiple colours. However, it may have been acquired by Louise Wilhelmine Henriette (1750–1811) and Leopold Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau (1740–1817) in Lyon, where the princely couple visited several silk manufacturers in August 1770 and purchased some silks. Some silks in a similar Chinese style are found in the palaces and collections of Potsdam, some of which were produced in Berlin (however, these are not hand-painted, but woven). Not many wall hangings have survived here, but this one is truly wonderful and it would be interesting to know more about it.

Bibliographic sources:

Evers, Susanne, “Die Verarbeitung französischer Vorbilder in der Berliner Seidenweberei”,in Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten (ed.), Friederisiko – Friedrich der Große, Die Essays, Munich, 2012, p. 350-355
Weiss, Thomas (ed.), Der Alltag der Fürstin Louise von Anhalt-Dessau. Ihre Tagebuchaufzeichnungen 1756-1805, zusammengefasst von Friedrich Matthisson, Berlin, 2010, p. 28