Lot 182: Jan Frans Douven (Roermonde 1656 - 1727 Düsseldorf)

Portrait of John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, oil on canvas, 86 x 67.5 cm, framed, (Wo)

Provenance: private collection, Munich
Apart from this painting there also exists a drawing that shows the Duke at a younger age and in armour, executed in the reverse direction from the painting (see lot 181). The present portrait shows the famous military commander and comrade-in-arms of Prince Eugene of Savoy in the War of the Spanish Succession. He was an ancestor of the British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The sitter's identity was confirmed by Blenheim Palace, the ancestral castle of the Dukes of Marlborough, and the National Portrait Gallery, London (oral communication). In 1714, when Douven painted this portrait, John Churchill could already look back on an eventful life. In the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 - 1714) he had been entrusted with leading the English and Netherlandish troops. The Holy Roman Emperpor, Great Britian, the States General (Holland) and later also Prussia and Savoy had formed the Great Alliance in order to prevent the Bourbon Duke Philippe of Anjou from seizing power in Spain, where the Archduke and future Emperor Charles VI was supposed to succeed to the throne after the death of the last Spanish Habsburg Emperor Charles II. In the Battle of Höchstädt (north of Augsburg on the Danube), Prince Eugene and Marlborough achieved a historic victory whose consequences are still effective today. From July 1 to September 7, 2004 Bavaria presented a large-scale exhibition, Brennpunkt Europas 1704, in Höchstädt Castle. To reward Marlborough for his vital services during the war, Queen Anne and the English Parliament presented him with Blenheim Palace near Oxford in 1705, his personal monument of victory, which today is one of the most frequented English country estates. The Emperor in Vienna thanked Marlborough by raising him to the rank of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1711, when the Tories came to power in England, he fell into discrace, which could not even be remedied by the intervention of his comrade-in-arms Prince Eugene. The Marlboroughs had to go into exile to the Netherlands and later to Germany.
Since 1682 Jan Frans van Douven had been a portraitist at the court of Elector Palatine Jan Wellem. He was also active in Vienna, creating the likenesses of Emperor Leopold I and his wife Eleonore.
See also the preface to this catalogue.