Rocznik Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie (2(38).2013)

Anna Kozak

I Nazarene Friendship Portraits by
Nineteenth-Century Silesian Painters
The portrait was not a major genre in the art of the Nazarenes. There was, however, a type
they did paint, in large numbers, so that it almost became their specialty. These were pictures
of other artists, their colleagues and friends, oils and drawings. Research by an expert on this
movement, Hans Geller, reveals the scale of this phenomenon.1 Geller counts over two thou-
sand portraits of German artists active in Rome in 1800-30, most of them by the Nazarenes
and most of them drawings. It is noteworthy that the tradition of artists portraying artists
initiated by this group was continued in centres of Nazarene activity in Germany, sometimes
well into the second half of the nineteenth century.
The friendship portrait is consistent with the Romantic image of friendship, which Klaus
Lankheit discusses in his important study Das Freundschaftsbild der Romantik.2 Lankheit
distinguishes its two types, the northern as represented by Caspar David Friedrich and
Philipp Otto Runge, and the southern, of the Nazarenes. Despite the passage of time and
new research on Romanticism, many of Lankheit’s observations, especially his analysis
of the reasons why these artists portrayed their friends, remain valid. Lankheit lists their
break with the academy and scarcity of social ties, and the resultant insecurity, material dif-
ficulties, loneliness and crisis of faith.3 In these circumstances, painters of the same artistic
orientation would reach out for support to their fellow artists, and their friendships would
become something sacred and frequently evoked, in portraits and as allegories. This feeling
of community stemmed not only from a similar creative drive, but also from joint undertak-
ings, such as fighting in the War of Liberation of 1813 or belonging to the same organizations
(Lankheit mentions the student fraternities, Burschenschaften), shared interests (for instance,
hunting) or regional connections, which played an important role in the large cities where
these artists lived and worked.
The friendship portraits are most often busts, sometimes only heads, and less often half-
figures, shown against a neutral background, usually without professional attributes. The
paintings are small, and the drawings even smaller, since most were made on the pages of
friendship albums and travel sketchbooks to record ties and to be shown to only a handful of

1 Hans Geller, Die Bildnisse der deutschen Künstler in Rom 1800-1830 (Berlin: Deutscher Verein für
Kunstwissenschaft, 1952).
2 Klaus Lankheit, Das Freundschaftsbild der Romantik (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1952).
3 Lankheit writes that early on, the Nazarenes “also share in the general uncertainty, belong to those who
doubt or are indifferent towards their childhood” (ibid., p. 93). Subsequent studies of this group almost without
exception stress their remarkable religious faith and involvement in the activities of the Catholic Church by taking
on commissions and joining church-related associations.