A New Exhibition of Schadow’s Princess Group in the Friedrichswerdersche Kirche
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once praised the two sisters, Luise and Friederike of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, as “heavenly apparitions […], the memory of which will never fade for me either”. The sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow created a monument to the sisters’ charm and grace, and with the double statue of ‘Crown Princess Luise and Princess Friederike of Prussia’ produced an icon of European Classicism.
Image gallery
Johann Gottfried Schadow, Doppelstandbild der Prinzessinnen Luise und Friederike von Preußen, sog. Prinzessinnengruppe, Detail, 1795, Gips, Aufstellung in der Friedrichswerderschen Kirche, 2023
Blick auf die Friedrichswerdersche Kirche, Aufnahme 2020
Johann Gottfried Schadow, Doppelstandbild der Prinzessinnen Luise und Friederike von Preußen, sog. Prinzessinnengruppe, 1795, Detail, Gips, Zustand nach der Restaurierung
Johann Gottfried Schadow, Doppelstandbild der Prinzessinnen Luise und Friederike von Preußen, sog. Prinzessinnengruppe, 1795, Gips, Aufstellung in der Friedrichswerderschen Kirche, 2023
The double statue, which has become known by the shortened name ‘Princesses Group’, is – like Caspar David Friedrich’s ‘Monk by the Sea’ – one of the highlights of the Alte Nationalgalerie’s collection.
Whilst the marble version, completed in 1797, greets visitors to the main building on Museum Island, the plaster model was a crowd-puller for decades at the sculpture exhibition in the Friedrichswerder Church.
The original plaster model holds a special place not only within Schadow’s oeuvre in particular, but also in 19th-century sculpture in general: it is here, above all, that one can most directly trace the artist’s distinctive style, as well as the fascinating genesis of the double statue.
The turbulent history of the fragile plaster model’s various locations had caused serious damage over the centuries. Thanks to the generous support of the Rudolf-August Oetker Foundation, the Hermann Reemtsma Foundation and the Cultural Foundation of the German States, the original plaster model was successfully restored as part of an exemplary research and restoration project.
Following the first-ever side-by-side display of the original plaster cast alongside the marble version as part of the exhibition ‘Touching Forms. Johann Gottfried Schadow’, the group is now being re-presented in the permanent exhibition at the Friedrichswerder Church, alongside a special exhibition on the restoration.
Branch of the Alte Nationalgalerie: ‘Ideal and Form’
Since 1987, the church has served as a branch of the Alte Nationalgalerie. The Nationalgalerie possesses one of the most comprehensive collections of 19th-century sculptural art and occupies a prominent position within the German museum landscape. The permanent exhibition ‘Ideal and Form’ showcases 19th-century sculptures from the Nationalgalerie’s collection. Items from the collection, spanning the Schinkel era to the German Empire, trace the developmental lines from the long 19th century into the modern era and invite visitors to rediscover Berlin’s internationally oriented school of sculpture – including significant works by Christian Daniel Rauch, Johann Gottfried Schadow, Reinhold Begas, Elisabet Ney and Adolf von Hildebrand.
- A special exhibition by the National Gallery of the State Museums in Berlin
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