Exécution de Katte signed 'Mucha' (lower right) grey wash and gouache over charcoal on paper 19 x 14in (48.3 x 35.6cm)
Footnotes
Executed between 1891 and 1897.
EXHIBITED: Paris, Galerie La Bodinière, 16 February-10 March 1897, cat. no. 24
Facing page 288 in the book Scénes et Episodes de l'Histoire de l'Allemagne, the work shows Prussian Crown Prince Frederick (later Frederick the Great) in distress, while witnessing the execution of his close friend Hans Hermann von Katte in November 1730. The prince was then imprisoned in the castle of Kostrzyn (western Poland) due to his plot to escape from his dominant father King Frederick William I and the kingdom; Katte, a Lieutenant of the Prussian Army, was accused of assisting the prince's escape.
We are grateful to John Mucha and Tomoko Sato, Curator of the Mucha Foundation, for confirming the authenticity of this lot from photographs and providing cataloguing information.
