The Children of Martin Anton Heckscher: Johann Gustav Wilhelm Moritz (1797–1865), Carl Martin Adolph (1796–1850), and Leopold (born 1792)

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein German

1803

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 633

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.

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Notes

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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Two Caricature Heads of Men, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein German, Pen and brown ink — Two Caricature Heads of Men
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Diomedes, bust and shoulders, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein German, Engraving — Diomedes, bust and shoulders
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Man's Fortitude, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein German, Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, over graphite — Man's Fortitude
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A Goose and a Gander with their Goslings Honking in Alarm as Two Foxes with their Cubs Emerge from the Rushes, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein German, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown and gray wash over black chalk, watercolor and bodycolor — A Goose and a Gander with their Goslings Honking in Alarm as Two Foxes with their Cubs Emerge from the Rushes
Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein
mid-18th–early 19th century

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