Odyssey of a picture

“I have also now finished the painting, Ulysses with Penelope (...) and no matter how often I look at it, I always think it would be perfect for the young royal couple, who love each other so dearly and occupy themselves so nobly, and preserve themselves for each other.”

Letters written by artists - such as Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829) in 1810 - can provide clues to previous owners: Peter I Friedrich Ludwig, Duke of Oldenburg, gave the painting Ulysses and Penelope, 1810 to his son Prince George and his wife Catherine Pavlovna, Grand Duchess of Russia, who resided in St Petersburg.

The journey of the painting led from Eutin, via Oldenburg and St. Petersburg to Stuttgart. After George's death, Catherine married the future King Wilhelm I of Württemberg in 1816. In 1921, the Stuttgart court art dealer Felix Fleischhauer submitted it for auction to Hugo Helbing of Munich. In 1922, the Munich gallery Heinemann sold it to a buyer in Hamburg. The new owner was presumably the Hamburg metal exporter Jacob Hirsch (1883-1933), who emigrated to Paris in 1932 and died there. In 1942, the Nicolai Gallery in Berlin offered the painting to the Dortmund Museum.