All together, now - The Bendemann Family and their Friends / The Schadow Circle, 1830-31

 

Der Schadow-Kreis (The Schadow Circle) - properly known as Die Familie Bendemann und ihre Freunde (The Bendemann Family and Their Friends) - is a group portrait created by the painters Julius Hübner, Eduard Bendemann, Theodor Hildebrandt, Karl Ferdinand Sohn, and their teacher and mentor Wilhelm Schadow in 1830/1831. It is a document of a close-knit family and friends, a circle of artists from which the Düsseldorf School of Painting emerged. 

The figures portrayed in the painting are, left to right:

Karl Ferdinand Sohn (1805 - 1867), artist.

Eduard Bendemann (1811 - 1889), artist, younger son of Anton Bendemann.

Anton Heinrich Bendemann (1777 - 1866), banker. (Until the acceptance of Berlin citizenship in 1809, he bore the name Aaron Hirsch Bendix; he belonged to the milieu of assimilated Berlin Jews and had converted to Protestantism with his family.)

Theodor Hildebrandt (1804 - 1874), artist.

Fanny Eleonore Bendemann, née von Halle (1778 - 1857), wife of Anton Bendemann.

Pauline Charlotte Hübner née Bendemann (1809 - 1895), wife of Julius Hübner, daughter of Anton Bendemann.

Emma Hübner (1830 - 1844), daughter of Julius and Pauline Hübner.

Emil Bendemann (1807 - 1882), elder son of Anton Bendemann.

Julius Hübner (1806 - 1882), artist.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow (1788 - 1862), artist and teacher.

Julius Hübner made preliminary studies for the painting in 1830 while in Rome; as the instigator of the project he is, appropriately, the only subject facing the viewer. The members of the group portrayed were all living in the "Eternal City" at the time - the “Casa Bendemann-Hübner” had established itself in the Via del Babuino near the Piazza del Popolo - and the painting was created as a sort of souvenir of their stay there; the painting on the wall behind the figures - an evening view of St. Peter's Basilica and the Castel Sant'Angelo - certainly underscores the connection with that time and place. 

For some reason, Emil Bendemann's left hand, although laid out in glaze, remained unfinished.

Theodor Hildebrandt's diary shows that the painting was begun on December 27, 1830. Hildebrandt painted Karl Ferdinand Sohn and Anton Bendemann. Sohn painted Hildebrandt, Schadow, and Eduard Bendemann. Eduard painted his mother and his brother Emil, while Hübner painted his wife Pauline and daughter Emma. Hübner himself was painted by Schadow. The painting is said to have only been completed after the return to Düsseldorf in the summer of 1831.

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Several years ago, I did a post on Hübner's fascinating and beautiful portrait of his wife Pauline.