Eduard Gaertner
view of the rear of the houses on Schlossfreiheit, 1855

Artist
Eduard Gaertner

Title
view of the rear of the houses at Schlossfreiheit

Year of creation
1855

Technique and dimensions
oil on canvas, 57 x 96 cm

Year of acquisition
1993

Acquired with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation from Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd., London

In 1678, the magistrate of the Berlin district of Friedrichswerder unsuccessfully demanded jurisdiction over the magnificent town houses west of the palace. Since then, this street on the Spree has been called “Schoßfreiheit”. In the Wilhelmine era it had to give way to the representational demands of the imperial family. Wilhelm II had the row of houses on the banks of the Spree demolished between 1892 and 1895 in order to build the national monument for his grandfather Wilhelm I in their place in 1896. In his painting, Eduard Gaertner not only shows a view of Berlin architecture, but also provides an insight into the lives of the residents.

Looking over the Spree lock canal, the painter shows the back of the Schloßfreiheit in its picturesque, unrepresentative appearance: with winter gardens and balconies full of flower pots and hanging laundry. Above the idyll of everyday bourgeois life, the splendor of the castle rises impressively in the form of the newly built castle dome over the Eosander portal by Friedrich August Stüler.