Rudolf (Ridolfo) Schadow

Girl with a Dove, from the limited production of the German sculptor Rudolf Schadow, is executed in Nordic neoclassicism. It is an intimate and sensitive portrait of a young woman who was close to the artist, while at the same time the sculpture gives a cool and emotionally restrained impression. Girl with Dove was originally conceived as part of a group of four sculptures commissioned for the royal collections by Frederick William III of Prussia. The group consisted of Cupid, Girl Spinning, Girl Tying Her Sandal and Girl with Doves.

Like many of the talented Nordic artists, Rudolf Schadow established himself in Rome, rather than in his native Germany. In 1812, he arrived in the city with his good friend and colleague, the sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch. They were welcomed into the community of German and Scandinavian artists who stayed at Casa Buti. It was a guest house for artists run by Anna Maria Buti and her three daughters, Elena, Vittoria and Olimpia. Through his father, the Prussian court sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow, Rudolf Schadow was able to enrol at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.

Schadow, who adopted the Italian first name Ridolfo, had his first success in 1813-14 when he created the sculpture Sandalbinderin (Girl tying her sandal). It set the tone both thematically and compositionally for his later genre figures. The three daughters of the Buti family modelled for him, and the sculptures were sought after by collectors and patrons.

Schadow was considered one of the most talented and original sculptors of the 19th century. His sculptures were contemporary but at the same time influenced by the most prominent neoclassical sculptors of the time, Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen. Schadow received commissions from all over the world and his sculptures were placed with, among others, a plantation owner in South Carolina in the USA, an important collector in Ireland and in the royal collections of Bavaria and Prussia. King Frederick William III bought four sculptures by Ridolfo Schadow in Rome. Three of them were installed in the Royal Palace (Kronprinspalats) in Berlin, while the fourth sculpture, Girl with Doves, was still in the artist's studio when Schadow passed away at the age of 36. In 2022, to mark the 200th anniversary of the artist's death, the four sculptures were presented, reunited for the first time, in an installation at Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin.

When the four sculptures were reunited in 2022, the group was given the modern title ‘The Judgment of Amor’. The sculptures are arranged in a semicircle, with Cupid gazing thoughtfully down from his divine sphere at the three young women, who seem not to notice him. In his right hand he holds a garland of flowers. In Schadow's work, the young Cupid is surrounded by three maidens in everyday situations: Girl spinning, Girl tying her sandal and Girl with doves. The current presentation of the four statues reflects the artist's original intention. In a letter of December 1819 to his patron, Prince Nicholas II Esterházy de Galantha (1765-1833), the artist expressed that he had originally intended the three female figures to be placed together with a Cupid, who ‘contemplates which of the three sisters he will crown with the wreath he holds in his right hand.’

Schadow made more than one version of Girl with Doves in 1819 and 1820. The version in this auction corresponds to the sketch found in Ridolfo Schadow's sketchbook, now in the collection of the Kunsthalle Bremen (see image). The girl's right hand, holding one of the two doves, is positioned closer to the body than in the later version mentioned in the installation above. The marble plinth and rounded base are in keeping with the other sculptures in the group.

Image: Girl with Doves, ink and pencil, from Ridolfo Schadow's sketchbook, Kunsthalle Bremen.
Photo: Installation view, SPSG, Daniel Lindner, 2022.