Portraits of Frederick the Great

During the lifetime of Frederick the Great a large number of idealized portraits were made of him by many painters and engravers, among them Antoine Pesne,Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 91–94, 96–98, 105–106, 107–115 and plates 5–8, 12–15, 25–26, 28–35.Helmut Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, in Oswald Hauser (ed.), Friedrich der Grosse in seiner Zeit (Cologne and Vienna: Böhlau, 1987), pp. 260–261, 263, 264–266 and figs. 3, 4, 7, 9, 10. Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff,Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 99–105 and plates 16–22.Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, pp. 262–263 and figs. 5–6. Johann Georg Ziesenis,Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 118–121 and plates 38–39.Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, p. 266 and fig. 12.Karin Schrader, Der Bildnismaler Johann Georg Ziesenis (1717–1776): Leben und Werk mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog (Münster: LIT, 1995), pp. 101–119.See also Portrait of Frederick II of Prussia by Johann Georg Ziesenis.[https://artsandculture.google.com/story/images-of-frederick-schloss-sanssouci/FAVRLcu12YrVJQ?hl=en Frederick the Great portrait auctioned for €670,000] Gottfried Hempel,Reimar F. Lacher, "Friedrich, unser Held": Gleim und sein König (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2017), pp. 9–11.Gottfried Hempel, [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Gottfried_Hempel_-_K%C3%B6nig_Friedrich_der_Gro%C3%9Fe_von_Preu%C3%9Fen_-_12711_-_Bavarian_State_Painting_Collections.jpg Portrait of Frederick the Great], Bavarian State Painting Collections, Munich.Gleimhaus Museum der deutschen Aufklärung: [https://st.museum-digital.de/object/13792 Porträt Friedrichs des Großen], c.1760. Johann Heinrich Christian Franke,Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 121–123 and plates 40–42.Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, pp. 257–258 and fig. 2.{{Cite web|url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Johann_Heinrich_Christian_Franke_%281738-1792%29_%28after%29_-_Frederick_II_%281712%E2%80%931786%29%2C_%E2%80%98The_Great%E2%80%99%2C_King_of_Prussia_-_263711_-_National_Trust.jpg|title=Johann Heinrich Christian Franke, Portrait of Frederick the Great}} Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo,Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, p. 122.Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, p. 267.Royal Collection Trust: [https://www.rct.uk/collection/404565/frederick-ii-king-of-prussia-1712-86 Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo, Frederick II, King of Prussia (1763-69)]. Anna Dorothea Therbusch,Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 132–133 and plates 57–58.[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Friedrich_II._%28Therbusch%29.jpg/802px-Friedrich_II._%28Therbusch%29.jpg Anna Dorothea Therbusch, Frederick the Great (c.1775).] Anton Graff,Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 133–135 and plates 59–60.Ekhart Berckenhagen, Anton Graff: Leben und Werk (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1967), p. 19.Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, pp. 255–257 and fig. 1. Johann Georg WilleAndrea M. Kluxen, Bild eines Königs: Friedrich der Große in der Graphik (Limburg an der Lahn: C. A. Starke, 1986), pp. 65, 69, 70, 76, 79, 81 and figs. 5, 7, 13.Princeton University Art Museum: [https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/46779 Johann Georg Wille, Frederic II King of Prussia], engraving, 1757. Georg Friedrich SchmidtKluxen, Bild eines Königs: Friedrich der Große in der Graphik, pp. 63, 64, 66-68, 70, 79, 81 and figs. 4 and 6.Tilman Just, [https://doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00007398 Georg Friedrich Schmidt, Chronologisches Verzeichnis seiner Kupferstiche und Radierungen] (Universität Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net, 2021), cat. nos. 87 and 98.The British Museum: Georg Friedrich Schmidt, [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1871-1209-794 Fredericus III Rex Borussiae], engraved portrait of Frederick II of Prussia as Frederick III Elector of Brandenburg, 1743.Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett: Georg Friedrich Schmidt, [https://skd-online-collection.skd.museum/Details/Index/969862 Frederick II, King of Prussia], engraving, 1746. and Daniel Chodowiecki.Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 126–128, 131–132 and plates 48–50, 56.Kluxen, Bild eines Königs: Friedrich der Große in der Graphik, pp. 50, 52, 55–56, 85, 95, 100, 105-123, 128–129, 131.Rainer Michaelis, “Friedrich der Große im Spiegel der Werke des Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki,” in Friederisiko: Friedrich der Große, exh. cat., Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, 2 vols (Munich: Hirmer, 2012), Die Essays, pp. 262–271.University of Oxford: [https://frederick.mml.ox.ac.uk/portraits-f-horse-1772 Daniel Chodowiecki, Frederick the Great on his horse (after 1772)].Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: [https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/portrait-of-frederick-the-great-daniel-nikolaus-chodowiecki/DAEhrhTyno3LXw Daniel Chodowiecki, Fridericus Magnus Rex Borussiae (1758)].

The king gave several of these pictures away as gifts in recognition of rendered services,Frauke Mankartz: "Die Marke Friedrich: Der preußische König im zeitgenössischen Bild," in Friederisiko: Friedrich der Große: Die Ausstellung, exh. cat., Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, 2012 (Munich: Hirmer, 2012), pp. 210–215. whether as life-size paintings, miniatures set with diamonds that were worn like medals, or representations on snuff boxes.The Metropolitan Museum of Art: [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/209241 Snuffbox cover with portrait of Frederick the Great (1712–1786), King of Prussia] However, most portraits were produced for commercial reasons without being commissioned by the king, because there was a demand for his likeness from all of the courts of Europe. None of these official portraits show the real facial features of the monarch. Many comments from Frederick's contemporaries who met the king prove that his true appearance did not match his depictions in painted and engraved portraits.See the many commentaries cited in Krysmanski, "Voices from the 18th century prove it: The truth was very different", in Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This, pp. 10–13. {{doi|10.11588/artdok.00008019}} For instance, in 1761, during a meeting with Frederick, Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim saw “a royal face that not a single painting depicts truthfully”.Letter of 8 January 1761 to Karl Wilhelm Ramler, cited in Gustav Berthold Volz, Friedrich der Grosse im Spiegel seiner Zeit, vol. 3 (Berlin: Verlag von Reimar Hobbing, 1901), p. 40. For the chronicler Christoph Friedrich Nicolai it was clear: “[...] no portrait is like him.”Briefe über die Kunst von und an Herrn von Hagedorn (Leipzig, 1797), p. 243, cited in Paul Seidel, "Die Bildnisse Friedrichs des Großen", Hohenzollern-Jahrbuch, 1 (1897), p. 107. Consequently, in 1897, art historian Paul Seidel complained that no clear judgment could be derived from the surviving portraits as to what Frederick the Great really looked like.Paul Seidel: "Die äußere Erscheinung Friedrichs des Großen," Hohenzollern-Jahrbuch, 1 (1897), p. 87.

The French Rococo painter Antoine Pesne (1683–1757),See Gerd Bartoschek, Antoine Pesne, 1683–1757: Ausstellung zum 300. Geburtstag (Potsdam-Sanssouci: Generaldirektion der Staatlichen Schlösser und Gärten, 1983). who worked at the Prussian court for many years and was appointed director of the Berlin Academy of Arts, chiefly depicted Frederick in his younger years, his earliest portrait being that of Frederick with his older sister, Wilhelmine, as children (c.1714–15).Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 91–92 and plates 5–6.See also [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Frederik_de_Grote_en_Wilhelmine.jpg Antoine Pesne, Frederick, Crown Prince of Prussia, as a child with his sister Wilhelmine (c.1714/15]. Several times he painted the crown princeHildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 92–94, 96–98, 105–106, 107–110 and plates 7–8, 12–15, 25–26, 28–31.[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Frederick%2C_Crown_Prince_of_Prussia.jpg Portrait of Frederick, Crown Prince of Prussia], painting by Antoine Pesne, 1724.[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Crown_prince_Friedrich_II%2C_by_Antoine_Pesne.jpg Portrait of Crown Prince Frederick], painting by Antoine Pesne, c.1736. and young kingHildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 110–115 and plates 32–35.[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/%27Portrait_of_Friedrich_II%27_by_Antoine_Pesne%2C_Hermitage.JPG Portrait of Frederick II of Prussia, Hermitage], painting by Antoine Pesne, c.1743.[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Friedrich2_jung.jpg/1536px-Friedrich2_jung.jpg Portrait of Frederick II of Prussia], painting by Antoine Pesne, 1745. in a representational style with smooth features. With some justification, critics accused Pesne of portraying all of his royal sitters equally beautifully and lacking any sharper characterization.Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, p. 115.See also Paul Seidel, Friedrich der Grosse und die bildende Kunst (Leipzig and Berlin: Giesecke & Devrient, 1922), pp. 186–187. For instance, referring to Pesne’s 1740 portrait of Frederick, art historian Helmut Börsch-Supan writes that the artist “wasn't interested in a true portrayal of the character. Pesne painted Frederick the Great as he depicted beautiful women courting the admiration of their viewers. This is a feminine trait that makes it difficult to see the full personality in this portrait.”Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, p. 265. Indeed, Pesne's idealized representations of Frederick do not correspond with a statement by the Austrian ambassador Friedrich Heinrich Graf von Seckendorff about the 14-year-old crown prince that he looked "old and stiff" at a young age and acted accordingly presumably because of the hardships imposed on him by his father.Paul Seidel, “Die Kinderbildnisse Friedrichs des Großen und seiner Brüder”, Hohenzollern-Jahrbuch, 15 (1911), p. 29. This means that already in his younger years, Frederick “does not seem to have been a rather handsome boy”.Krysmanski, Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This, p. 10. {{doi|10.11588/artdok.00008019}} Significantly, even his father said, when the English royal family had asked him for a portrait of the crown prince, that they should have a large monkey painted because that was Frederick's likeness.Johannes Kunisch, Friedrich der Große: Der König und seine Zeit (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2004), p. 27.

Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff seems to have invented a pictorial formula that depicted the crown prince in profile with a classically straightened nose,"When reproducing Frederick’s nose, most of the artists seem to have oriented themselves to the classical Greek ideal of beauty. This becomes particularly clear in pure profile views, for example in a pastel by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff." See Krysmanski, "The classic straight nose in portraits", in [https://doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00008019 Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This], pp. 16–17.[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Friedrich_II_%28Knobelsdorff%29.jpg Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, Crown Prince Frederick in profile (1737)]. which must have had an immense influence on countless later profile portraits of the king that were widely distributed through prints.See Krysmanski, [https://doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00008019 Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This], p. 17, referring to an overview page of graphic portraits of Frederick in Edwin von Campe, Die graphischen Porträts Friedrichs des Großen aus seiner Zeit und ihre Vorbilder (Munich: Bruckmann, 1958), p. 94. According to Börsch-Supan, the receding forehead, whose contour in side view is a straight continuation of the bridge of the nose, gives the face something bold and sharp, but is in strange contradiction to the full, somewhat drooping lower face and the beginnings of a double chin.Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, p. 262 and fig. 5.

In 1763 Johann Georg Ziesenis produced a "bourgeois" portrait of the king which has been claimed to be the only painting for which Frederick sat during his lifetime.Jean Lulvès, Das einzige glaubwürdige Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen als König (Hanover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1913). It was commissioned by Frederick's sister, Duchess Philippine Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.August Fink, “Herzogin Philippine Charlotte und das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen,” Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch, 40 (1959), pp. 117–135. However, more recent researchers have doubts as to whether the king actually sat for this painting from 17 to 20 June 1763 at Castle Salzdahlum,See Karin Schrader, Der Bildnismaler Johann Georg Ziesenis (1717–1776): Leben und Werk mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog (Münster: LIT, 1995), pp. 101–119. especially since he had an aversion to being portrayed and the artist made Frederick's facial features look far too handsome.According to Arnold Hildebrand, it speaks against the fact that the king granted the painter a session, that "the picture does not correspond to the image of him that we have in our heads based on the reports of the man who was almost crushed by fate. ... Ziesenis has portrayed the king in a physically flattering manner", and he shows the 52-year-old "healthy, well-preserved, good-natured and jovial." See Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, p. 119. Indeed, in 1763, at the end of the Seven Years' War, Frederick "complained in his letters of how much weight he had lost and how thin, fragile, and gray he had become."See [https://artsandculture.google.com/story/images-of-frederick-schloss-sanssouci/FAVRLcu12YrVJQ?hl=en Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg: Images of Frederick] For instance, in a letter to Sophie Caroline von Camas of March 6, 1763, he wrote: "You will see me again as an old man ... I'm as gray as a donkey, I lose a tooth every day and I'm half paralyzed from gout".Cited in Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, p. 35. Ziesenis's portrait hardly agrees with this.See [https://artsandculture.google.com/story/images-of-frederick-schloss-sanssouci/FAVRLcu12YrVJQ?hl=en Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg: Images of Frederick]

When the French painter Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo stayed in Berlin from 1763 to 1769, he painted at least two portraits of the Prussian king, one of which has been in the royal collection in London since 1816.See [https://www.rct.uk/collection/404565/frederick-ii-king-of-prussia-1712-86 Royal Collection Trust: Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo, Frederick II, King of Prussia (1763-69)].[https://www.lempertz.com/en/academy/detail/friedrich-ii-modest-appearance.html Sir Christopher Clark, “Frederick II – Modest appearance”]. According to Paul Seidel, the artist put the “stamp of unnatural” on these portraits of Frederick. “You can see at first glance that they are painted from memory and without a sitting.”Paul Seidel, Friedrich der Grosse und die bildende Kunst (Leipzig and Berlin: Giesecke & Devrient, 1922), p. 198.

Such images, based on Knobelsdorff's and Pesne's idealized portraiture, dominated both in painted and engraved form until the 1760s. However, after the Seven Years' War, the conception of Frederick portraits seems to have changed, now even allowing the depiction of individual shortcomings or the effects of experienced stress. At the same time, in connection with an intensive formation of legends about the military successes of the king, the emergence of an “age type” can be observed both in painting and sculpture.Saskia Hüneke, “[https://perspectivia.net//servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/ploneimport_derivate_00010606/hueneke_bildhauerkunst.pdf Friedrich der Grosse in der Bildhauerkunst des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts],” Jahrbuch/Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, 2 (1997–1998) (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 2001), p. 61. By emphasizing the sharp nasolabial folds, the straight lines of the forehead and the bridge of the nose, the narrow mouth and the protruding eyes the artists created a type of image that art historian Helmut Börsch-Supan has characterized as “very Prussian in its expressive frugality to the point of scantiness.”Helmut Börsch-Supan, “Die Bildnisse des Königs,” in Friedrich Benninghoven, Helmut Börsch-Supan and Iselin Gundermann (eds.), Friedrich der Grosse: Ausstellung des Geheimen Staatsarchivs Preußischer Kulturbesitz anläßlich des 200. Todestages König Friedrich II. von Preußen (Berlin: Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 1986), p. XIII.

A very popular depiction of Frederick in the new style is the portrait painted by Johann Heinrich Christian Franke in 1763/64, of which a number of variants exist.Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 121–123 and plates 40–42.Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, pp. 257–258 and fig. 2.See [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Friedrich_II.%2C_mit_Dreispitz%2C_gr%C3%BC%C3%9Fend_%28Franke%29.jpg Johann Heinrich Christian Franke, Frederick the Great saluting with his cocked hat, c.1763/64]. It shows a bourgeois king holding up his tricorne in greeting. The monarch was well known for frequently saluting in public with his “cocked hat.”Tim Blanning, Frederick the Great: King of Prussia (London: Penguin Books, 2016), pp. 349-350.

In 1767, Anton Friedrich König (1722-1787) was appointed royal court miniature portrait painter for Frederick the Great. In 1769, he produced a watercolour painting on ivory showing the king as an intellectual writer, historian and philosopher in front of his writing table, surrounded by the books in his library.Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 124–125 and plate 46.Jürgen Luh, [https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/friedrich-der-gro%C3%9Fe-in-seiner-bibliothek-anton-friedrich-k%C3%B6nig/OQHbgfG6LwVipQ?hl=en Friedrich der Große in seiner Bibliothek], Sanssouci Palace, Prussian Palaces and Gardens, Potsdam.Anton Friedrich König, [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Friedrich_II._in_seiner_Bibliothek_%28K%C3%B6nig%29.jpg Frederick II in his library], watercolour on ivory, 1769.

In a gouache of 1772 by Daniel Chodowiecki the king is posed rather awkwardly in a slightly bent position on horseback, a representation that circulated in numerous copiesHildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 126–128 and plates 48– 50.University of Oxford: [https://frederick.mml.ox.ac.uk/portraits-f-horse-1772 Frederick the Great on his horse after 1772] and engraved versions. A print after it was later used by Johann Caspar Lavater as an illustration for his Physiognomische Fragmente (1777), because the author was of the opinion that here "the Great, He himself, was riding past," as he believed he knew him from life.Johann Caspar Lavater, Physiognomische Fragmente, zur Beförderung von Menschenkenntniß und Menschenliebe (Leipzig and Winterthur: Weidmanns Erben & Reich; Heinrich Steiner & Compagnie, 1777), Dritter Versuch, p. 348.

When in 1775 Frederick sent Voltaire the portrait that Anna Dorothea Therbusch had painted of him,Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 132–133 and plates 57– 58.Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, p. 267 and fig. 14.[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Friedrich_II._%28Therbusch%29.jpg Anna Dorothea Therbusch, Portrait de Frédéric II de Prusse (c.1775)]. he ironically said: “In order not to dishonour her brush, she has adorned my contorted face with the grace of youth.”Cited by Frauke Mankartz, “Die Marke Friedrich: Der preußische König im zeitgenössischen Bild,” in Friederisiko: Friedrich der Große, exh. cat., Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg (Munich: Hirmer, 2012), Die Ausstellung, p. 209. Only a few years later, Therbusch's brother Christoph Friedrich Reinhold Lisiewski painted a portrait of the Prussian king that looks very different from his sister's,Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, pp. 267–270 and fig. 15.See [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Christoph_Friedrich_Reinhold_Lisiewski_-_Bildnis_Friedrich_des_Gro%C3%9Fen_%281772%29.jpg Christoph Friedrich Reinhold Lisiewski, Frederick the Great (1782)]. which is all the more surprising given that the siblings often collaborated on their paintings.See Gerd Bartoschek, “Gemeinsam stark? Anna Dorothea Therbusch und ihre Zusammenarbeit mit Christoph Friedrich Reinhold Lisiewsky”, in Helmut Börsch-Supan and Wolfgang Savelsberg (eds.), Christoph Friedrich Reinhold Lisiewsky (1725–1794) (Berlin and Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2010), pp. 77–84.

In 1781 Anton Graff painted Frederick the Great for the Prussian envoy in Dresden, Philipp Karl von Alvensleben. For this portrait and some later copies the monarch never sat. The artist is said to have observed the king from a distance when he attended a military parade and then made the picture from memory.Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 133–135 and plates 59–60.Ekhart Berckenhagen, Anton Graff: Leben und Werk (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1967), p. 19.Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis”, pp. 255–257 and fig. 1. It shows a bourgeois-looking king and, in its concentration on the physiognomy, reflects Graff's portrait style more than a king's claim to representation.See [https://brandenburg.museum-digital.de/index.php?t=objekt&oges=7332 Stiftung Preußische Gärten und Schlösser Berlin-Brandenburg: König Friedrich II. von Preußen (1712-1786)]. Helmut Börsch-Supan assumes that Graff only corrected the facial features that he found “carved” in Franke's portrait in order to make them “more carnal, softer and human.”Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis,” p. 257.

In the case of eighteenth-century portraits of monarchs, less importance was attached to the likeness of the sitters, and more to the political and social role in which they wanted to be represented in public. For example, they were shown as rulers with scepter and ermine cloakSee [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Fredrik_II%2C_1712-1786%2C_kung_av_Preussen_%28Antoine_Pesne%29_-_Nationalmuseum_-_15767.tif/lossy-page1-3232px-Fredrik_II%2C_1712-1786%2C_kung_av_Preussen_%28Antoine_Pesne%29_-_Nationalmuseum_-_15767.tif.jpg Antoine Pesne's portrait of Frederick II of Prussia]. or as competent military leaders, not what they looked like in their everyday life.Ernst H. Kantorowicz, The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1957)Claudia Breger, "A Hybrid Emperor: The Poetics of National Performance in Kantorowicz's Biography of Frederick II," Colloquia Germanica, 35, nos. 3–4 (2002), pp. 287–310. According to art historian Frauke Mankartz, the recognizable "brand" was more important than realism.Mankartz, "Die Marke Friedrich: Der preußische König im zeitgenössischen Bild," p. 210. The king himself often said that his portraits did not resemble him,In 1772, he wrote to Voltaire: "You will know that … neither my portraits nor my medals are like me." Cited in Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, p. 135. and his contemporaries, including Emperor Joseph II,In 1769, Joseph II wrote to his mother Maria Theresa about the Prussian King he had met in Neisse: "He does not resemble any of the pictures you have seen of him ." Letter dated 29 August 1769, cited in Gustav Berthold Volz, Friedrich der Grosse im Spiegel seiner Zeit, vol. 2: Siebenjähriger Krieg und Folgezeit bis 1778 (Berlin: Reimar Hobbing, 1901), p. 213. were of the opinion that not a single painting depicted his face truthfully.Krysmanski, [https://doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00008019 Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This], pp. 11–13.

Indeed, Frederick had a pronounced aversion to sitting for portraits, which he consistently refused because he was convinced that he was ugly. "You have to be Apollo, Mars or Adonis to be painted, but since I do not have the honour of resembling one of these gentlemen, I have withdrawn my face from the painters' brush as much as it depended on me," he wrote to Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert in 1774.Hans Dollinger, Friedrich II. von Preußen: Sein Bild im Wandel von zwei Jahrhunderten (Munich: List, 1986), p. 82. Furthermore, he said to the Marquis d’Argens: "There is so much talk about the fact that we terrestrial kings are made in the image of God. Then I look in the mirror and am obliged to say to myself: How unlucky for God!"Cited after Gisela Groth, "Wie Friedrich II. wirklich aussah," [https://archiv.preussische-allgemeine.de/2012/paz4612.pdf Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 November 2012], p. 11. After extensive analysis of different types of Frederick portraits, Andrea M. Kluxen arrives at the conclusion that there is no realistic image that accurately depicts Frederick's (ugly) facial features.Andrea M. Kluxen, Bild eines Königs: Friedrich der Große in der Graphik (Limburg an der Lahn: C. A. Starke, 1986), p. 34.

File:Frederick's death mask.gif

{{Multiple image

|image1=Adolph Menzel - Flötenkonzert Friedrichs des Großen in Sanssouci - Google Art Project (cropped).jpg

|caption1=Idealized portrait of Frederick from The Flute Concert of Sanssouci by Adolph Menzel, 1852

|alt1=Portrait of man playing the flute

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|image2=Frederick Marriage A-la-Mode, Plate IV MET DP827176 (cropped).jpg

|caption2=Possible portrait of Frederick the Great in The Toilette scene from Marriage A-la-Mode, engraving by Simon François Ravenet after William Hogarth, 1745

}}

The death mask of him, taken by John Eckstein on 17 August 1786,{{Cite web|url=http://friedrich.uni-trier.de/de/volz/7/uc_p14-d1/detail/|title=Die Werke Friedrichs des Großen, 7, S. uc_p14, Abb. 1|website=friedrich.uni-trier.de}}Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 140–142 and plates 65–69.Michael Hertl, Totenmasken: Was vom Leben und Sterben bleibt (Stuttgart: Jan Thorbecke, 2002), pp. 159–163. demonstrates precisely what had led the king to his conviction that he was extremely ugly: Frederick had a prominently hooked nose and little else to make him look handsome.According to art historian Bernd Krysmanski, "Frederick the Great disliked his own features. … Most of his portraits disgusted him. The reason was simple: he was convinced that he was ugly", because he had "a prominently hooked and aquiline nose, and little else to recommend him to connoisseurs of classical ideals of good looks". See Krysmanski, "Frederick the Great’s lack of good looks", in Das einzig authentische Porträt des Alten Fritz? Is the only true likeness of Frederick the Great to be found in Hogarth's 'Marriage A-la-Mode'? (Dinslaken, 2015), p. 46. This aquiline nose is not depicted in the official painted portraits. However, it is to be seen in a toned-down form in a print by Johann Georg Wille (1757)Kluxen, Bild eines Königs: Friedrich der Große in der Graphik, pp. 76, 79 and fig. 13.Princeton University Art Museum: [https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/46779 Johann Georg Wille, Frederic II King of Prussia], engraving, 1757. and in a bust by Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (completed in 1770).E. P. Riesenfeld, “Cavaceppis Büste Friedrichs des Großen”, Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst, n.s. 25 (1914), 57–60.Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen, pp. 39, 123–24 and plates 43–45. In her analysis of Frederick busts and statues, Saskia Hüneke also noticed that nearly all of them depict the nose in a relatively straight line. "In comparison, the wax pouring from the original form of the death mask does not show this line, so that it is more an ideal of the ancient Greek profile".Hüneke: "[https://perspectivia.net//servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/ploneimport_derivate_00010606/hueneke_bildhauerkunst.pdf Friedrich der Große in der Bildhauerkunst des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts]," p. 62.

Only one artist seems to have shown the Prussian king as he really was, namely with an extremely clear aquiline nose and playing the flute in front of a symbol of homosexuality: William Hogarth in scene 4 of his satirical series Marriage A-la-Mode. The picture is entitled The Toilette and was completed in 1744. Art historian Bernd Krysmanski argues that Hogarth must have learned about Frederick's facial features from the Prussian engraver Georg Friedrich Schmidt whom he had visited in Paris in 1743 while seeking engravers for the engraved version of Marriage A-la-Mode.Krysmanski, “The Prussian engraver Georg Friedrich Schmidt as an informant?” in [https://doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00008019 Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This], pp. 30–35.Bernd Krysmanski, Das einzig authentische Porträt des Alten Fritz? Is the only true likeness of Frederick the Great to be found in Hogarth's 'Marriage A-la-Mode'? (Dinslaken, 2015), pp. 27-33, 55-58. The features of the flautist depicted on the left of Hogarth's paintingFrank Thadeusz, [https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/friedrich-der-grosse-wie-haesslich-war-der-alte-fritz-a-00000000-0002-0001-0000-000165101030 "Wie hässlich war der Alte Fritz?"], Der Spiegel, no. 31, 26 July 2019.[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Alleged_Frederick_II_Portrait_in_Marriage_A-la-Mode_4%2C_The_Toilette_-_William_Hogarth_%28cropped%29.jpg William Hogarth, Marriage A-la-Mode 4: The Toilette scene (1743-44). Detail: flautist]. bear a striking resemblance to the death mask of Frederick,Krysmanski, [https://doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00008019 Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This], pp. 22-26. as does the face of the flautist in Simon François Ravenet's reversed engraving after Hogarth's painting (1745).Krysmanski, Das einzig authentische Porträt des Alten Fritz? Is the only true likeness of Frederick the Great to be found in Hogarth's 'Marriage A-la-Mode'?, ill. p. 28.

In the nineteenth century, the king became a popular subject in historical paintings and prints. Adolph Menzel depicted events from the life of Frederick both in the wood-engravings to illustrate the Geschichte Friedrichs des Grossen by Franz KuglerFrançoise Forster-Hahn, "Adolph Menzel's 'Daguerreotypical' Image of Frederick the Great: A Liberal Bourgeois Interpretation of German History," Art Bulletin, 59, no. 2 (June 1977), pp. 242–261.Kathrin Maurer, "Franz Kugler and Adolph Menzel's History of Frederick the Great (1842)," in Visualizing the Past: The Power of the Image in German Historicism (Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2013), pp. 118–144 and in several of his paintings,Hubertus Kohle, Adolph Menzels Friedrich-Bilder: Theorie und Praxis der Geschichtsmalerei im Berlin der 1850er Jahre (Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2001). including Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci as the most famous work.Jost Hermand, Adolph Menzel: Das Flötenkonzert in Sanssouci: Ein realistisch geträumtes Preußenbild (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch, 1985). In these pictures he continues to avoid representing Frederick with a crooked nose,Krysmanski, "Menzel continues to idealise the king’s nose", in [https://doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00008019 Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This], pp. 20-22. although he must have known the death mask of the Prussian king.Several death masks hung on Menzel's studio wall, including that of the Prussian king. See Gisela Hopp, "Menzels 'Atelierwand' als Bildträger von Gedanken über Kriegsnot und Machtmissbrauch," Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, 41 (1999), supplement, pp. 131–138.

As during his lifetime Frederick protested against being depicted in monuments, only after his death numerous monuments were erected, including Johann Gottfried Schadow's Szczecin marble statue (1793)Klaus Gehrmann, Dariusz Kacprzak and Jürgen Klebs (eds.), Friedrich der Große, Johann Gottfried Schadow, aus der Sammlung des Muzeum Narodowe w Szczecinie (Berlin: Schriftenreihe der Schadow Gesellschaft Berlin e.V., vol. XIV, 2011).{{Cite web|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Statue_of_Friedrich_II_of_Prussia_in_Szczecin#/media/File:Pomnik_Fryderyka_Wielkiego_w_Szczecinie_1.JPG|title=Category:Statue of Friedrich II of Prussia in Szczecin - Wikimedia Commons|website=commons.wikimedia.org}} and Christian Daniel Rauch's Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great (Berlin, 1851).Frank Pieter Hesse and Gesine Sturm (eds.), Ein Denkmal für den König: Das Reiterstandbild für Friedrich II. Unter den Linden in Berlin / A Monument for the King: The Equestrian Statue of King Friedrich II on the Boulevard Unter den Linden in Berlin (Berlin: Schelzky & Jeep, 2001).Wieland Giebel (ed.), Das Reiterdenkmal Friedrichs des Großen, enthüllt am 31. Mai 1851 (Berlin: Berlin-Story-Verlag, 2007).[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/AlterFritz_21a.jpg Christian Daniel Rauch, Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great (1851)].

Art historian Helmut Börsch-Supan concludes: “The king's indifference to his portrait ... and the difficulty of capturing his physical appearance in a picture, due to the mobility of his mind, have meant that there is no truly valid portrait of him. The insatiable need of contemporaries and posterity to have his portrait before their eyes was thus given free rein to deform it in any direction.”Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis,” p. 269.

{{Gallery

|title=Portraits of Frederick the Great

|width=160 | height=170

|align=center

|File:Crown prince Friedrich II, by Antoine Pesne.jpg

|Painting as 24-year-old Crown Prince of Prussia by Antoine Pesne, 1736

|alt1=Painting of a young Frederick in robes and armour, with a baton

|File:Friedrich II (Knobelsdorff).jpg

|Painting as Crown Prince of Prussia by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, 1737

|File:Antoine Pesne - Friedrich der Große als Kronprinz (1739).jpg

|Painting as Crown Prince wearing an ermine-lined, purple coronation cloak by Antoine Pesne, 1739

|File:Fredrik II, 1712-1786, kung av Preussen (Antoine Pesne) - Nationalmuseum - 15767.tif

|Painting during his early reign by Antoine Pesne, early 1740s

|File:Frederic II de prusse.jpg

|Painting as King of Prussia by Antoine Pesne, c.1745

|File:Friedrich der Große - Johann Georg Ziesenis - Google Cultural Institute (cropped 2).jpg

|Painting by Johann Georg Ziesenis, 1763

|File:Friedrich II., mit Dreispitz, grüßend (Franke).jpg

|Painting by Johann Heinrich Christian Franke, 1764

|File:portraitoffrederickthegreat.jpg

|Painting by Anna Dorothea Therbusch, 1772

|alt8=Full-length portrait painting of Frederick as an older man

|File:Friedrich II. (Therbusch).jpg

|Painting by Anna Dorothea Therbusch, 1775

|File:Friedrich ii campenhausen.jpg

|Painting by Wilhelm Camphausen, 1870

|File:Frederick II of Prussia Coloured drawing.png

|Engraving by unknown illustrator, 1871

|alt11=Portrait painting of Frederick as an old man in military uniform

}}

{{Gallery

|title=Sculpted Portraits of Frederick the Great

|width=160 | height=170

|align=center

|File:Pomnik Fryderyka Wielkiego w Szczecinie 1.JPG

|Statue of Frederick the Great, marble by Johann Gottfried Schadow, 1793

|File:Johann Gottfried Schadow Friedrich II mit Windspielen Bronze Alte Nationalgalerie.jpg

|Frederick the Great with his Italian Greyhounds, bronze by Johann Gottfried Schadow, 1822

|File:Statue of Frederick the Great in front of Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin 20130720 1.jpg

|Statue of Frederick the Great in front of Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin

|File:Berlin Friedrich II Denkmal 09-2017 img2.jpg

|Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great, Unter den Linden, Berlin. Bronze by Christian Daniel Rauch, 1851

}}

{{Reflist}}

• Helmut Börsch-Supan, “Friedrich der Große im zeitgenössischen Bildnis,” in Oswald Hauser (ed.), Friedrich der Grosse in seiner Zeit (Cologne and Vienna: Böhlau, 1987), pp. 255–270.
• Edwin von Campe, Die graphischen Porträts Friedrichs des Großen aus seiner Zeit und ihre Vorbilder (Munich: Bruckmann, 1958).
• Paul Dehnert, “Daniel Chodowiecki und der König”, Jahrbuch Preussischer Kulturbesitz, 14 (1977), 307–319.
• Françoise Forster-Hahn, “Adolph Menzel’s ‘Daguerreotypical’ Image of Frederick the Great: A Liberal Bourgeois Interpretation of German History,” Art Bulletin, 59, no. 2 (June 1977), pp. 242–261.
• Gunther Hahn and Alfred Kernd’l, Friedrich der Grosse im Münzbildnis seiner Zeit (Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein Verlag; Berlin: Propyläen Verlag, 1986).
• Arnold Hildebrand, Das Bildnis Friedrichs des Großen: Zeitgenössische Darstellungen, 2nd edition (Berlin: Nibelungen-Verlag, 1942).
• Saskia Hüneke, “Friedrich der Grosse in der Bildhauerkunst des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts,” Jahrbuch/Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, 2 (1997–1998) (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 2001), pp. 59–91.
• Andrea M. Kluxen, Bild eines Königs: Friedrich der Große in der Graphik (Limburg/Lahn: C. A. Starke, 1986).
• Hubertus Kohle, Adolph Menzels Friedrich-Bilder: Theorie und Praxis der Geschichtsmalerei im Berlin der 1850er Jahre (Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2001).
• Bernd Krysmanski, Does Hogarth Depict Old Fritz Truthfully with a Crooked Beak? – The Pictures Familiar to Us from Pesne to Menzel Don’t Show This, ART-dok (University of Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net, 2022). {{doi|10.11588/artdok.00008019}}
• Frauke Mankartz, “Die Marke Friedrich: Der preußische König im zeitgenössischen Bild,” in Friederisiko: Friedrich der Große, exh. cat., Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, 2 vols (Munich: Hirmer, 2012), Die Ausstellung, pp. 204–221.
• Rainer Michaelis, “Friedrich der Große im Spiegel der Werke des Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki,” in Friederisiko: Friedrich der Große, exh. cat., Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, 2 vols (Munich: Hirmer, 2012), Die Essays, pp. 262–271.
• Martin Schieder, “Die auratische Abwesenheit des Königs: Zum schwierigen Umgang Friedrichs des Großen mit dem eigenen Bildnis,” in Bernd Sösemann/Gregor Vogt-Spira (eds.), Friedrich der Große in Europa: Geschichte einer wechselvollen Beziehung, 2 vols (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2012), vol. 1, pp. 325–338.
• Paul Seidel, “Die Bildnisse Friedrichs des Großen,” Hohenzollern-Jahrbuch, 1 (1897), pp. 87–112.
• Paul Seidel, Friedrich der Grosse und die bildende Kunst (Leipzig and Berlin: Giesecke & Devrient, 1922).

• [https://artsandculture.google.com/story/images-of-frederick-schloss-sanssouci/FAVRLcu12YrVJQ?hl=en Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg: Images of Frederick]
• [https://frederick.mml.ox.ac.uk/portraits University of Oxford: Portraits of Frederick]
• [https://www.lempertz.com/en/academy/detail/friedrich-ii-modest-appearance.html Frederick II - Modest appearance. Sir Christopher Clark about Charles Amédée van Loo’s Portrait of King Frederick II of Prussia]
• [https://jenikirbyhistory.getarchive.net/topics/portrait+paintings+of+friedrich+ii+of+prussia GetArchive: Portrait Paintings Of Friedrich II Of Prussia]

Category:18th-century paintings

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