Offer for the King. Album with Joseph Wahl’s Prints

Aleksandra Bernatowicz

Abstract

The paper discusses a collector’s item that the album composed of 29 etchings, kept at the Print Cabinet at the Warsaw University Library, constitutes. The majority of the prints were certainly executed by Joseph Wahl (twenty signed works), with the attribution of the remaining ones continuing unclear. The works are often dated to 1776, 1777, or 1778.

            The dedication to King Stanislaus Augusts preceding the prints allows to consider the whole to be Wahl’s artistic portfolio. Its concept seems quite obvious: the Album was to demonstrate advances of science and aspiration to enjoy further favours of the patron. When the artist was compiling the discussed album, he was already receiving a small pension from the King. This is exactly how he signed the above-mentioned dedication, as he features there as a ‘Pensionnaire du roi’.

            Born in 1753, most likely in Saxony, Joseph Wahl lived in Warsaw at least from 1772 onwards. After some time, he was given the status of a scholarship holder, a privilege the King awarded to few individuals only. It was the discussed Album that quite likely proved instrumental in the decision to send Wahl abroad as a talented artist of high potential. That initiated his numerous later travels: first to Dresden (Wahl may have reached his destination around 1779 and remained for three years there). He subsequently travelled to Italy, where he stayed for around nine years in total.

            The rhymed dedication to the King in French serves as an interesting example of this kind of texts, actually thanks to its universal character. In compliance with the tradition it contains eulogy elements, though its author succeeded in avoiding ridiculousness; the poem written by Wahl testifies to his excellent knowledge of French and mastery of poetical phrases.

            The collection of etchings starts with the glorification of Stanislaus Augustus as an outstanding patron of fine arts. Among further etchings, the following can be distinguished: studies of male heads, rural views, landscapes with figural staffage, and genre scenes. The last echo the Dutch, directly or indirectly: Little Masters or Rembrandt’s prints. In the latter case, they are most often free imitations of Jan Piotr Norblin, who himself eagerly interpreted Rembrandt, or even made his own compositions inspired by Dutch masters.

            However, the best etching in the whole Album is Print No. 17, though unsigned. Its comparison with the famous etching by Norblin from 1775 showing Mazepa, yet being essentially a portrait study of a Polish Jew, leaves no doubts. Wahl’s print is a creative interpretation of the work of the French artist. On the other hand, this stylization is closer to Rembrandtising faces, adorned with Oriental picturesque turbans, so willingly painted by e.g. Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, or Georg Friedrich Schmidt to name the few. Etching No. 28, in turn, seems to be an early variant of Mazepa’s portrait, referring to state? I or II of Norblin’s etching.

            It is not only Mazepa’s portrait study that points to a strong dependence on Norblin’s prints. Also other etchings collected in the Album confirm the supposition that Wahl’s education was conducted mainly under the French master. When searching for possible inspiration sources let us not forget that Stanislaus Augustus did own a sizeable collection of Rembrandt-inspired prints, while the artists working for the court had access to them in the Castle’s Painting Workshop.

            The discussed Album does not display any outstanding artistic qualities. It, however, serves as a valuable testimony: to Joseph Wahl’s trials at printmaking, to Norblin’s impact on his art, and finally, to the interest in Rembrandt and the Little Dutch Masters. Furthermore, which I personally find the most interesting, it serves as the testimony to the artist’s efforts to improve his professional status, in line with the custom and convention of the time.