Theodor Schloepke: Fritz Reuter

• oil on canvas, 1866, height (oval): 62 cm

Duke Frederick Francis II. of Mecklenburg-Schwerin commissioned his court painter, Theodor Schloepke, to paint an oil portrait of Fritz Reuter for the Schwerin painting gallery. The suggestion came from Gustav zu Putlitz, the director of the grand ducal Theatre in Schwerin at that time. Fritz Reuter would have preferred to have accommodated in Eisenach “another artist […], who I do not know so well” for this purpose but he was very satisfied with the final picture and said that his wife no longer knew “whether she would rather keep the picture or the original.”