E.Th.A Hoffmann, the writer of fantastical stories, looking just as he ought; bizarre unforgettable features. About 1820.



A portrait of Paganini, who has signed the drawing with his devil's trill; 1828.


The philosopher Hegel in 1829; amazingly lucid features for a man who wrote such obscure and alembicated prose. You can sense the power of his intellect, the finest of all these portraits in my view. Such eyes.


Rahel Varnhagen von Ense, a writer and prominent figure in the intellectual society of Berlin. She was of Jewish birth but converted to Christianity before her marriage. This dates from 1822.


Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in 1837. A relative late and superficial portrait. Hensel also made a portrait of Mendelssohn as a child, but I don't care for it, it makes him look like Little Lord Fauntleroy.


Heinrich Heine, 1829. Although this is not the most fluent of these drawings, it brings out a distinctive side of the poet's character. Heine has inscribed it, 'Eh bien, cet homme c'est moi!'.


Karl Friedrich Schinkel, 1824; the great Neoclassical architect. We have had some of Schinckel's paintings of imaginary Gothic architecture here earlier in the year.


The Romantic poet Clemens Brentano in 1819, looking soulful and more than a little Italian.


Alexander von Humboldt in August 1858.