Gosztonyi Ferenc - Király Erzsébet - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2002-2004. 24/9 (MNG Budapest, 2005)

NEW ACQUISITIONS - Johann Georg Weickert: Princess Maria Anna Esterházy, the wife of Prince Anton Grassalkovich II, 1784-85 and Johann Baptist Lampi the elder: Prince Anton Grassalkovich II, 1785 (Enikő Buzási)

NEW ACQUISITIONS JOHANN GEORG WEICKERT: PRINCESS MARIA ANNA ESTERHÁZY, THE WIFE OF PRINCE ANTON GRASSALKOVICH II, 1784-85 AND JOHANN BAPTIST LAMPI THE ELDER: PRINCE ANTON GRASSALKOVICH II, 1785 BY ENIKŐ BUZÁSI Johann Georg Weickert: Princess Maria Anna Esterházy, the wife of Prince Anton Grassalkovich II, 1784-85 Oil on copper plate, 62x51.2 cm, unsigned Inv.: 99.7. M. Purchased in 1999 Johann Baptist Lampi the elder: Prince Anton Grassalkovich II, 1785. Oil on copper plate, 62x51.2 cm, unsigned Inv.: 99.7. M Purchased in 1999 Purchased from a private collection, the full-size half-length portraits belonged to the pre1945 furnishings of the palace of the Viczay family at Hédervár in Western Hungary. The paintings are unsigned, and there was no information regarding their identity at the time of their acquisition. Though their composition is not symmetrical, they belong together - perhaps as parts of a former three-piece series. Based on an archival photo, the male image has been identified as Prince Anton Grassalkovich II, and therefore it seemed reasonable to assume that the female portrait is that of his wife, Princess Maria Anna Esterházy, the daughter of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, 'the Magnificent'. No authentic image of Anton Grassalkovich, a royal chamberlain, indeed, a privy councillor who rose to the rank of imperial prince in 1784, survives with which we could confirm this identification. His figure features only in a painting by Peter Krafft of the coronation of Francis I as King of Hungary. This work was produced decades later, in 1823 (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest), but the depiction of the prince is similar to that in the portrait from Hédervár. Similarly, we have no means of authenticating the image of Maria Anna Esterházy. All that supports our supposition is an exact copy of the portrait of the princess in the collection of the Esterházy family, although it is recorded there as a portrait of an unknown woman (Eisenstadt Palace, Prince Esterházy Collection, oil on canvas, 70.5x54.5 cm, inv. nos.: 2054/1936 and 5/952). However, based on the family connection and the recent discovery of our painting, the work's counterpart, which forms a pair with the Grassalkovich portrait, the image can be identified as that of Maria Anna. Unlike our painting, this portrait from the Esterházy collection is signed,