Heinrich Leichner, attr., Portrait of a Young Nobleman
Half-figure portrait of a boy looking confidently at the ...

Heinrich Leichner, attr., Portrait of a Young Nobleman
Half-figure portrait of a boy looking confidently at the viewer with his right hand resting on his hip and chapeau bas wearing a tricorn under his left arm, dressed in a splendid gold-embroidered doublet, red justaucorps and powdered wig, in front of drapery in a manorial interior, possibly the first son of the Saxon Count Heinrich von Brühl (1700-1763), Count Alois Friedrich von Brühl (1739 Dresden to 1793 Berlin) at the age of approx. 6 years old, whose ambitious father was already protected by Augustus the Strong and advanced under his successor and son Elector Friedrich August II of Saxony (as King of Poland August III.In 1746 he was appointed prime minister. Heinrich von Brühl saw in his first-born son an important factor in maintaining the power of the Brühl dynasty. As an infant the young Brühl was admitted to the Szlachta and at the age of 11 he already held the office of governor in Warsaw, became royal cupbearer and crown general field officer as well as diplomat in 1761-63, the present painting corresponds with a portrait of his father painted in 1730 by the hand of the Saxon court painter Louis de Silvestre (1675-1760), not least for reasons of status Heinrich von Brühl had his Brühl Gallery built in 1742-44 by Knöffel in the garden on Brühl's Terrace in Dresden and used the services of painters such as Leichner, on this subject the "Magazin der sächsischen Geschichte" [Volume 4 (1787)] writes "... His son Johann Heinrich [Leichner], however, lived and married in Dresden, where Brühl called him with 300 Thlr. salary. ... In the Brühl Cabinet were very beautiful pieces by him", impasto baroque portrait painting, oil on canvas and secondary stretcher, signed and dated on the reverse of the canvas partly covered by the wide stretcher "J. H. Leichner, Peintre du Roij de Pol ... 1745", craquelure, old retouching, somewhat in need of restoration, unframed, dimensions approx. 78.5 x 61.5 cm. Artist info: actually Johann Heinrich Leichner, German portrait painter and copyist (died as a result of "youthful excesses" ca. 1762 in Dresden), son and pupil of Johann Georg Heinrich Theodor Leichner (1684 Erfurt to 1769 Leipzig), first working as a copyist for a painter and art dealer Beyer, whose son-in-law he became, the high quality copies attracted the attention of Count Heinrich von Brühl, who took Leichner into his service and remunerated him with an annual pension of 300 riksdaler, active in Dresden, Source: Thieme-Becker, Saur "Bio-Bibliographisches Künstlerlexikon", Füßli, Magazin der sächsischen Geschichte, vol. 4 (1787), Nagler and "Sächsische Biografie".