Lot 2089 Dα

We would like to thank Dr Marianne Heinz, Kassel, who has viewed the painting in the person, for confirming its authenticity and for providing the following catalogue text.
"The painting has not been trimmed or relined, the stretcher is presumably still original. Painted around 1770.

This portrait depicts Johann Jacob von Uckermann II (1718 Wahnfried - 1781 Hannover) in a three-quarter figure enface in a justeaucorps with a matching blue velvet waistcoat with lavish silver embroidery in an interior that we often find in the works of Tischbein the Elder. He leans his left hand on an armchair with splendid vermilion upholstery, while his right hand points to a sketchbook on the desk next to him. On top of it, in front of a group of books, stand the writing utensils typical for the era, with an inkwell, quill, pounce box and table bell. A plush red curtain closes the composition on the left. The background remains here - as in many of Tischbein the Elder's portraits - without any specific characterisation or decoration. By leaving the back wall empty, the painter thus provides enough space for the brightly lit and finely painted portrait of the sitter.
Since the portrait lacks any medals or comparable accessories that could tell us the identity of the depicted, the only way we can precisely identify him is by the inscriptions on the spines of the books. The spine of the middle book reads: "HOCHFURTL / HESS:POSTOR / 1763". This tells us that the sitter is Johann Jacob Uckermann (II), son of Johann Jacob Uckermann I (1682-1749), who like his father was a merchant and mayor of Wanfried.
Uckermann became wealthy as a supplier to the troops during the Seven Years' War. He was appointed Kommerzienrat and Generalpostintendant in 1763 and was responsible for the development and operation of the Hessian postal system. In 1766 he was made privy councillor of war, ennobled in 1769 and raised to the rank of imperial baron in 1770. Through his marriage to his second wife, Johanna Christiane Meyer (1742-1827), in 1761 he came into the possession of Bendeleben Castle in Thuringia and Weesenstein Castle in Saxony. (The information on the Uckermann family is taken from the publication by Hendrik Bärnighausen: Das "Museum" des Freiherrn Johann Jacob von Uckermann und seine Übernahme durch die Universität Leipzig, in: Staatliche Schlösser, Burgen und Gärten Sachsen, Jahrbuch 13, Dresden 2005, here especially p. 129. This also contains a family painting by Uckermann (p. 128), which additionally confirms the identity of the sitter)".