Portrait of Auguste Schiffmann as child

The painting, recorded already in the pre-war museum collection, presents the daughter of the Szczecin merchant August Ferdinand Schiffmann. By showing the bust of the girl en face, August Ludwig Most, the most outstanding representative of the Biedermeier style in Szczecin, focused on the countenance of the young model. He realistically showed the subtle features of the girl’s face and in her sharp gaze combined with a faint smile was able to express her liveliness and curiosity of the world. The girl’s elegant outfit ˗ a snow-white dress with a wide lacy collar, a pink headband braided into her hair above the temple, long earrings made of transparent mountain crystal testify to the representative intention of the portrait. The character of the presentation is also confirmed by the preserved original frame, richly decorated. Portraits, along with genre scenes, were themes willingly tackled by Most. In his works, the artist presented children with particular sensitivity; he skilfully rendered not only their external appearance, but also the psyche, which is beautifully exemplified by the Szczecin portrait of the young Auguste Schiffmann, who after her marriage adopted the name Kittel.

Dariusz Kacprzak