Painted by Carl Gottlob Ehrlich, Meissen 1776
Consisting of:
All pieces with Marcolini swords mark (with star). The vedutes on the porcelains are based on Canaletto paintings
The famous porcelain portraits featuring views of Dresden and Warsaw were created by Carl Gottlob Ehrlich (1744–1799), the leading landscape painter of the Meissen manufactory (see Rückert 1990, pp. 143 ff.). Born around 1744 in Torgau, Ehrlich came to Meissen as a painter's apprentice in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. By 1772—after remarkably few years of professional experience—he was appointed drawing master. In 1774, he was listed among the "Landscape and Prospect Painters of the First Class" with a very high salary of 200 thalers. In 1776, he painted the “Déjeuner with Dresden Views,” now housed in the Kuskovo Museum near Moscow (Rückert, see below).
Ehrlich is also renowned for his oil and gouache paintings outside the manufactory (Walcha, p. 175 end, and p. 176):
“Famous is the enormous composite watercolor in the Meissen City Museum, depicting the view from the Albrechtsburg,”
“the uniquely realistic and atmospheric etching of the Albrechtsburg fire,” and
“the reportage-style gouache painting showing the dramatic rise of the Elbe in 1789.”
This includes the romantic view of the Albrechtsburg from the Elbe riverbank (Szkurlat 2022, Fig. 7, p. 19).
All pieces of our service feature various Dresden views based on paintings by Bernardo Bellotto, known as Canaletto (1722–1780 Venice, Dresden, Warsaw), with one cup painted with a Pirna veduta (see below). Ehrlich rendered them masterfully—both decorative and faithful to detail, creating a harmonious effect. The déjeuner, with all its components, forms a magnificent, artistic ensemble that fits into the series of masterful porcelain views:
