Finely painted in an allegorical scene using elements and characters from Norse myth to represent Winter, signed in the lower left corner 'Copiert nach Prof. H. Prell von L. Scherf, the reverse inscribed in blue 'Winter' nach Prof. H. Prell'
20 in. (50.7 cm.) high; 33¹⁄₂ in. (85 cm.) wide overall

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Lot Essay

This lot has been in the same ownership in a Continental European Collection since it was acquired at the time of manufacture.

The scene of this plaque is taken from the original mural painted by the German artist Hermann Prell (1854-1922), for the throne room of the then German Embassy in Rome, the Palazzo Caffarelli. It is illustrated by Franz Hermann Meissener in Hermann Prell's Wandgemalde Im Thronsaale De Deutschen Botschaft, Zu Rom Palazzo Caffarelli, Dresden, 1899, p. 53.

Hermann Prell was personally commissioned to design the murals for the throne room of the German Embassy in Rome by Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941). Prell was one of the most sought after artists for large murals such as these in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His mythological motifs were particularly popular in the Wilhelmine Empire. For the murals in the Palazzo Caffarelli, Prell decided to use the seasons as his inspiration, integrated with various characters and motifs from Norse mythology taken from the Medieval text, The Edda. Prell painted three murals for the throne room, each representing a season; Winter, Spring and Summer. Interestingly, there was no mural for Autumn.¹

In 1918 at the end of the First World War, the Palazzo Cafarelli was confiscated from the Germans by the Italians and the murals were returned to Berlin. The throne room was then subsequently destroyed. The murals were returned to Berlin, where they were kept in the cellars of the Foreign Ministry on Wilhelmstrasse along with other works also returned from the Palazzo, until a decision could be made as to where to display them in order to make them accessible to the wider public. Unfortunately no decision was made, and the murals, still in the cellar, were destroyed in 1945.

A copy of the original design is held by the Museen der Stadt, Dresden, museum no. 1988/k 75.

1. The lack of an Autumn mural may be because histroically Germany did not seperate Autumn and Winter as two seperate seasons, leaving only three seasons a year. See Franz Hermann Meissener in Hermann Prell's Wandgemalde Im Thronsaale De Deutschen Botschaft, Zu Rom Palazzo Caffarelli, Dresden, 1899, p. 28.