Kant, Immanuel

height of image c. 8.5cm, oval, watercolour and gouache on unbacked vellum, showing the great philosopher wearing a brown coat and waistcoat, the buttons decorated with a star-motif, with cravat, jabot and wig, contemporary gilt wood frame, glazed

Wenzel Johann Gottfried, Graf Purgstall (1773-1812), of Schloss Hainfeld, Feldbach in Steiermark, acquired the miniature in Königsberg in 1794.  The portrait was described as still at Schloss Hainfeld by F. Weinhandl in 1937.  We understand that heirs of the Purgstall family died out in at the beginning of this century, and that Schloss Hainfeld and its contents, including fifty-eight paintings, were sold at auction. 

[Kant-Forschungsstelle at Mainz University]: http://www.kant.uni-mainz.de/ikonographie/miniatur.html, see image no.71;  F. Weinhandl, "Mitteilungen. Zur erstmaligen Veröffentlichung der bisher unbekannten Kant-Miniatur von Springer, aus dem Besitz des Barons Heinrich von Hammer-Purgstall, Schloß Hainfeld/Steiermark", Kant-Studien 42 (1937), pp.325-327 (See: http://www.kant.uni-mainz.de/ikonographie/Ikont.PDF/T063.pdf); 'Purgstall, Gottfried Wenzel', in Deutsche Biographie  (http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz99486.html).

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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This long-lost miniature of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was apparently acquired by the first owner, Baron Gottfried Wenzel von Purgstall, when he visited Königsberg in 1794 and became acquainted with Kant personally.  The portrait closely resembles another miniature (c.1792-1795), better-known but possibly copied from it, by Carle Vernet (1758-1836, father of Horace), which is now in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Berlin.  Kant's pose, wig, jabot and even the buttons on his coat are the same.  A number of further copies and engravings were made from Vernet's version.  The present miniature is recorded by the Kant-Forschungsstelle in Mainz as portrait no.71 (illustrated only in black and white); the Vernet is portrait no.17.

In our opinion, both the painting and the inscription on the back date from the second half of the eighteenth century, even if not precisely 1765.  Schidlof and Benezit both record a Friedrich Wilhelm Springer, who produced portrait miniatures in Königsberg, where this one was presumably made.  However if Friedrich Wilhelm's accepted dates (1760-1805) are correct, it must mean that this item was painted by a relative or else later than 1765, and indeed it does seem to show Kant aged somewhat older than his forties. (If 1765 were correct, this would be the earliest known portrait of the philosopher.)

The other important Kant portraits, as recorded by the Kant-Forschungsstelle include an early painting by Becker (no.2, 1768) in Marbach (Schiller-Museum), one by Gottlieb Döbler (no.16, c.1791) now in Duisberg, and the anonymous portrait, possibly by Elisabeth von Stägemenn (no.15, c.1790), in Königsberg.  Apart from an apparently lost portrait of 1786 by F.W. Senewaldt, the other miniatures of Kant would appear to be modelled, probably through Vernet, on the present image.