Doppelbildnis Hildebrand und Grant

Hans von Marées’s double portrait shows the profile of the sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand (1847–1921) and his friend and English teacher Charles Grant (1841–1889), who is half disappearing into the background. The teacher-pupil relationship is conveyed by Grant’s posture, with his right hand placed on a book, and his direct gaze at the viewer. However, von Marées skillfully avoids reducing the two men to this relationship.

Both claim their own space—Hildebrand the foreground, Grant the background—and are portrayed as confident and independent. Von Marées thus emphasizes their individuality, using incident light to accentuate in particular the face of the young sculptor, whom he had met in Italy in 1867.

Up until 1875 the painter and the sculptor cultivated a close and productive relationship. The subtle pictorial conception of this double portrait, which is devoted to a characterization of the personalities of the two sitters, makes this one of von Marées major portraits.