Lot 30: Johann Paul Adolf Kiessling (German, 1836-1919),

Johann Paul Adolf Kiessling (German, 1836-1919), "Discovery at Meissen: Böttger Revealing to August the Strong the Method of Producing Porcelain", oil on canvas, label from "Spiegel & Bilderrahmens" en verso, University of Utah accession labels en verso, unsigned, 69 in. x 49 in., in a very fine and elaborate gilt, gessoed, and carved wood frame. Provenance: University of Utah, thence to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Note: This oil on canvas is a small-scale version by Kiessling of the mural he produced for the Albrechtsburg Castle in Meissen, Germany. It depicts the moment when the German alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682-1719), who had been incarcerated in the Castle after his claims of being able to turn virtually any organic material into gold had proved false, reveals to Frederick Augustus (more commonly known as August the Strong), Elector of Saxony and Poland, the method for producing hard paste porcelain. While Böttger is generally considered the developer of this method, it was more likely devised by his predecessor at Meissen, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After Tschirnhaus's untimely death, it was Böttger who perfected the technique and introduced the porcelain to an eager market. Porcelain production officially commenced at the Meissen Factory in 1710. Kiessling attended the Dresden Academy of Fine Art, where he later became a professor. He exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, and was the recipient of the gold Medal in Berlin in 1891. References: Bénézit. Dictionnaire des Peintres. Librairie Grund. 1976. Vol. VI, p. 212. www.albrechtsburg-meissen.de