The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine

Johann Friedrich Ardin

This portrait of the elector of the Palatinate can be attributed to Johann Friedrich Ardin.1 He created an impressive number of enamel miniatures of the Palatine ruler,2 skilfully integrating the head from portraits by other artists into his own compositions (cf. 10050). The type shown here is known from two other works by Ardin – one in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm,3 and one in the collection belonging to the British queen.4 The piece in Stockholm shows the model with his order in full view along with more of his elector’s hat.

Johann Wilhelm of the Palatinate (1658–1716) became ruler upon the death of his father in 1690. He was an art-lover and employed many artists at his court in Düsseldorf, some of them renowned figures – for example the architect Alberti, the sculptor Grupello, and the painters van der Werff, van der Neer, van Douven, Weenix, Zanetti and Bellucci. Alongside Ardin, other enamellists also served Johann Wilhelm. Some of the most gifted were Peter Boy and Charles Boit (cf. 11049). It is thanks to Johann Wilhelm that Düsseldorf developed into a unique centre of the arts in the early 18th century. His extensive collection of paintings later found its way to the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, and his miniatures to the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum. 
B. P.

1 In the art trade it was erroneously attributed to Peter Boy (Sotheby’s London, 17 March 1986, no. 143).

2 Cf. the miniatures in the collection of the Hessian House Foundation in Wolfsgarten Castle and Fasanerie Castle, the Baye risches Nationalmuseum, Munich, the Residence Museum, Munich, the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no. OA 7731, OA 7689) and the collection of the queen of England. Cf. also Christie’s London, 16 December 1975, no. 44. For the miniature in the Residenzmuseum, Munich, see Bernd Pappe, Geliebte Porträts. Bildnisminiaturen im Münchner Residenzmuseum, Regensburg 2017, pp. 20-1. On the miniature collection of the Palatine elector, see in particular Buchheit 1911; Denk 1998; Scherp-Langen 2014.
3 Inv. no. NMB 877. See also Helbing, Munich (Lehmann collection), 21 October 1919, no.25.
4 Cf. Walker 1992, p.47, no.91 (erroneously identified as Emperor Charles VI, by an unknown artist).