In Dresden

In Dresden (part 2)

We had been alarmed by warnings that we might have trouble obtaining Austrian passports; but I must praise the humanity of the embassy. Herr von Büel(1), the secretary, received us very kindly. When he learned that we wished to leave soon, he courteously dealt with the matter himself at once; and within a few hours we received papers signed by Count Metternich(2), valid throughout all the imperial territories.

You know my dilatoriness and carelessness in scholarly matters and questions of art. What business has a layman in the sanctuary? I did not see the gallery because I would have had to put my shoes on again; I did not see the hall of antiquities because I failed to find the inspector on my first attempt; and I missed everything else because I was too indolent. You lose nothing by it: someone else will tell you about everything and describe it better.

I visited Herr Grassi(3), more for the sake of Schnorr’s company, and because I had already seen Grassi in Warsaw, than from any strong desire to inspect his work. Yet I consider him the best painter I have encountered so far. His colouring is glowing yet very delicate, and his draughtsmanship accurate and engaging. It seems to me that he has relaxed something of the severe seriousness of the genuine old school and poured his own flourishing, inexpressibly charming grace into its place. With better success, he has achieved what Oeser(4) attempted in his late manner—which, as art critics know very well, landed Oeser among the “nebulists.” Both flatter; but Grassi flatters only the connoisseur, whereas Oeser flattered only the amateur. Grassi also told me a good deal about Warsaw, where the great crisis of the recent revolution had touched both our lives. Through Tepper’s collapse(5) he had lost five thousand ducats, and during the siege he had to command ten men as a corporal in the citizens’ corps. Picture the gentle artist on a battery with a squad of wild Poles, where the incoming cannonballs took no orders from anyone. Kościuszko’s(6) friendship and artistic sensibility finally brought the good man to safety: the general obtained passports allowing him to leave that dreadful scene and personally provided him with an adequate escort until he had nothing more to fear. You can imagine that our friend Schnorr took to him enthusiastically; and the warmth with which the two opened their hearts to one another did honour to them both.

This morning I was awakened by the thunder of cannon, and on rising learned that a prince had been born to the ruling house(7). Perhaps the gentleman will never again in his life make so much noise as he did on arriving upon our planet. Fortunately for their lands, the princes of this house have for more than a century been mostly children of peace. That surely increases their merit, while leaving their courage no more in doubt than if they had won battles.

Footnotes

• (1)'Herr von Büel': Seume’s “Büel” is almost certainly Joseph Andreas Freiherr von Buol-Berenberg (1776–1812), an Austrian diplomat who came to Dresden in 1801 and worked at the imperial legation under Metternich. He later served there as chargé d’affaires. ↩︎
• (2)'Count Metternich': Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich (1773–1859), who became Austrian envoy to the Saxon court in 1801. He later served as Austria’s foreign minister and chancellor. ↩︎
• (3)'Grassi': Josef Mathias Grassi (1757–1838), an Austrian portrait and history painter who worked in Warsaw before becoming a professor at the Dresden Academy in 1799. ↩︎
• (4)'Oeser': Adam Friedrich Oeser (1717–1799), painter, engraver, director of the Leipzig Academy and a teacher of Goethe. Seume’s “nebulists” is a mocking label for artists whose work he found vague or mistily sentimental. ↩︎
• (5)'Tepper': Piotr Fergusson Tepper (1732–1794), a leading Warsaw banker. His banking house collapsed during the financial crisis of 1793, causing heavy losses among its clients; he was fatally injured during the Warsaw disturbances of 1794. ↩︎
• (6)'Kościuszko': Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746–1817), leader of the 1794 Polish uprising. According to Seume, Kościuszko arranged passports and an escort that enabled Grassi to leave Warsaw safely. ↩︎
• (7)'a prince had been born': Prince John of Saxony was born in Dresden on 12 December 1801. He later reigned as King John of Saxony from 1854 to 1873. ↩︎