The Children of Martin Anton Heckscher: Johann Gustav Wilhelm Moritz (1797–1865), Carl Martin Adolph (1796–1850), and Leopold (born 1792)
Sons of the Hamburg banker Martin Anton Hecksher examine a plan of the Schnepfenthal school, founded in Gotha in 1787 and considered one of the most progressive in Germany. Tischbein was at the heart of German Romanticism’s rich intellectual culture, and he depicts the young students in a natural setting that was sympathetic to Enlightenment educational reforms that swept Europe and encouraged a new vision of childhood. Descended from a prominent Ashkenazi Jewish family, under the pressure of widespread anti-Semitism impacting business and social life, their father oversaw the boys’ conversion to Protestantism in 1808 before his own conversion in 1815.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Children of Martin Anton Heckscher: Johann Gustav Wilhelm Moritz (1797–1865), Carl Martin Adolph (1796–1850), and Leopold (born 1792)
- Artist: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (German, Haina 1751–1829 Eutin)
- Date: 1803
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 58 x 45 in. (147.3 x 114.3 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Gift of the family of August Heckscher II, in his memory, 2002
- Object Number: 2002.564
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings
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