Count Harry Kessler, art connoisseur/diarist was born in Paris on May 23rd
1868, five days after Nicholas II on May 6th (OS) / 18th
(NS).
In 1881 Kessler was attending the prep school St.
George’s in Ascot near Windsor. On Saturday July 9th he
“… went to a review of 62,000 volunteers but the most interesting thing was the
Queen’s procession. In the first carriage was the Queen in black the Princess
of Wales in dark blue and the Crown Princess of Germany in white … Then
followed some huntsmen next came another carriage with the duchesses of Teck
and Connaught and two other ladies then some more huntsmen and the princesses
of Hesse-Darmstadt in blue then the officers of police and last but not least
the King of Sandwich Islands in another carriage. After these carriages came a
royal huntsman in gold and dark crimson then came the Prince of Wales in some
dark color … riding next to the Crown Prince of Germany in a white uniform,
then came the dukes of Teck, Connaught and Cambridge and the Duke of
Hesse-Darmstadt the husband of the late unfortunate Princess Alice …”
Illustration (below) of the Review on July 9th
1881 at Windsor Castle and aerials today
Alix, the daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig and Grand
Duchess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt, married Nicholas II on November 14th
1894 becoming Empress Alexandra. Count Kessler’s life intersected in later years
with Nicholas and Alexandra.
On Saturday August 31st and Sunday
September 1st 1901 Count Kessler and Henry van de Velde visited
Darmstadt’s artist’s colony under the patronage of Grand Duke Ernest. They were
contemplating a similar enterprise in Weimar. The exhibition ‘A Document of
German Art’ had opened on May 1st to immediate controversy.
Kessler returned to Darmstadt on Friday January 3rd
1908 and visited Grand Duke Ernest in his Neues Palais to discuss a forthcoming
exhibition in Paris. At the conclusion of their discussion, Kessler wrote in
his diary that Ernest ‘sprang up and reached for some glass vessels that were
standing on the mantelpiece. I thought they were Tiffany’s. He contradicted me
very forcefully: no that is done locally, by me here in the palace with Schneckenburg.
Tiffany wants to get the secret from them’.
The Count further wrote that Ernest wanted to educate
the people not to buy overstuffed decorations for their rooms. Kessler looked around
the room in the Neues Palace and thought it ‘the most clumsy, over decorated
room, stuffed full of inferior modern bronze and knickknacks … The music room
next door is an orgy of material and affectation. Between two mosaic walls, a
colossal six-or-eight cornered blue grand piano surrounded everywhere by tall
thin columns, like sharp icicles, impaled with naked boys and men. In between hovering
from above, rings of blue glass that spread a blue light’.
On Wednesday October 27th 1910 Nicholas and
Alix left Wolfsgarten at 3:00 pm and went to the Neues Palais. He wrote that ‘we
had been there for a long time. I looked over with Erni [Ernest] several new
rooms in the palace’. Nicholas did not comment on what he thought of the rooms.
On a previous visit on Saturday September 27th 1903 they looked ‘over
an exhibition of various items, furniture and room arrangement in the new style
of Mathildenhohe. It was disgusting to look at in my opinion’.
Photographs (below) of the Neues Palais and Grand Duke Ernest's interiors
On Thursday October 22nd 1914 Count Kessler
was stationed in Cieblovice [Poland] in the Imperial Forest three kilometers
from the imperial hunting palace Spala and “drove out to the palace, which is a
small one-story, very simple structure looking like the outbuilding of a Swiss
inn. Inside it is simply but decently decorated in the English fashion with
many bathrooms and other comforts. The princesses slept each two to a room; the
tsarevich had on the other hand a room for himself. The tsar and tsarina had a
common, very simple bedroom with a large, covered veranda with a pretty view of
the park and the Pilica River. The only object of luxury is the very beautiful,
enormously large chandelier of silver and antlers …”
Aerial View and Photographs (below) of Spala c1930s
A lot of heartbreak here with Alexei's crisis.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAll very interesting. Yes, that sitting room in the Neues Palais looks a bit much, but it isn't without charm. I wonder how much coordination there was to the color scheme; I hope it wasn't too much of a jumble. : )
ReplyDeleteThe destruction of the Neues Palais was such a great loss....
Yes, the loss of the Neues Palais would have kept Darmstadt on the map for royal watchers and tourists. I think it survived the first war but was destroyed in the 30's in a fire?
DeleteWasn't it destroyed in the bombing of Darmstadt by the British in September 1944?
DeleteDestroyed in World War II, yes. : (
DeleteThe Neues Palais' walls etc did survive. Other parts of Darmstadt were in the same state and they restored the buildings i.e. Schloss, Alte Palais etc. They decided not to with the Neues Palais.
DeleteLOL! These descriptions by Count Kessler and Tsar Nicholas II are wonderful. :-)
ReplyDeleteAlthough Nicholas' full 1903 comment about the imagination and fancy of the artists was perhaps a bit harsh, he liked the sculpture works.
Petra Tücks' PhD thesis on the Neues Palais and its interiors includes several pictures of rooms and pieces of furniture. The ones in colour give me the impression that it was a relatively dark colour scheme, with very dark wooden furniture and some dark blue walls.
The 'colossal six-or-eight cornered blue grand piano' was apparently designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich. It looked rather inelegant with its heavy legs. I think he was more succesful with some of his other desgins, for example, the Hochzeitsturm in Darmstadt and the lovely Prinzessinnenhaus in the park of Schloss Wolfsgarten.
I have seen some of the paintings of GD Ernest rooms, especially the blue one. I am curious though of the muzikzimmer if similar to Behrens:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.besbrodepianos.com/video/behrens-house-2.jpg
Olbrich created a very different atmosphere for the Musikzimmer (1902/1903) in the New Palace. Petra Tücks' book includes an entire chapter on various design details of this room, with pictures of corners, pieces of furniture etc. - difficult to describe in a few sentences.
DeleteWhat a pity that the Neues Palais was destroyed during the Allied Bombings... :'( at least it could had been preserved the facade after the war. Tücks' book includes floor plans? I've collected several interior pics of the palace but I have no idea of the building's inner layout...
DeleteYes, it includes floor plans.
DeleteYou can inquire with the Hesse Archives for copies of the floor plans.
DeleteThanks for the answers !! Some weeks ago I already found the floor plans and many interior pics in the Darmstadt Archives ;)
DeleteI have been reading your amazing site
ReplyDeletehttp://nuitsblanchesasaintpetersbourg.blogspot.ca/
Will you be doing a post on the Neues Palais and uploading the plans?
Thanks for your kind words Joanna!!
DeleteFor the moment I don't expect to write anything about the Grand Duke Ernst, but you can easily found the floor plans here:
https://arcinsys.hessen.de/arcinsys/detailAction.action?detailid=v356706
The plans are dated 1902, I think that some new rooms (the Konzertsaal) were added/changed around 1914. There are no names on the maps but match the old photographs with the plans is relatively easy. If you need some help, let me know ;)
Enric.
Thank you very much for the link. I also love the plans for the Altes Palais!
DeleteThere are also the floor plans of the Residenzschloss, very surprising to see it was bigger and more complex than I expected !
DeleteI thought the same of the Altes Palais when seeing the plans. It looks smaller from the road.
DeleteThe Residenzschloss photographs c1900s when Grand Duke Ernest created the museum interiors are incredibly fascinating.