Lot 646: Müller, Carl Friedrich Moritz('Feuermüller')1807 Dresden - 1865 Munich The Reader.

Müller, Carl Friedrich Moritz
('Feuermüller')
1807 Dresden - 1865 Munich

The Reader. Signed and dated on the lower right: Moritz Müller. Munich 1848. Oil on canvas. Relined. 86,5 x 105cm. Framed.

Literature:
The painting is presumably identical to the one with the no. 22 in Bötticher, Malerwerke des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, vol. II.1 , p. 105.

The painting's historical background is closely connected to the representation of archduke John as the German Imperial regent (framed by flags in the background). The painting deals with the genesis of the nation state: Archduke John was elected regent with 436 votes (of 548) by the Frankfurt Parliament in the St. Paul's church on 29 June 1848 and consequently became the first German head of state elected by a parliament. As a matter of fact, he was the temporary head of a state that had still to be constituted and finally didn't come into being as planned. The March Revolution having failed the regent laid down his office at the end of 1849.
The reader is probably reading out the archduke's 1848 proclamation.