A Painting Hangs Over My Life

[cali]

Last edited Tue Jun 3, 2014, 05:46 AM - Edit history (1)

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A painting hangs over all 61 years of my life. It hung in my parents' living room wherever they lived, 5 houses in total, I think. I have a good framed photographic copy of it hanging in my home. The original is is a life size- or close to it- head to toe portrait of two young women in formal dress of the period, on a stone balcony against a backdrop of trees with heavy foliage and a cloud streaked blue sky. They are clothed in pink silk and white satin. I always thought of them as the Lady in Pink and the Lady in White.

The Lady in Pink, who is seated on what I imagine to be a stone bench; imagine because her voluminous skirts obscure what she is actually perched on, is my great-great grandmother. The Lady in White is her younger sister. They are in their late teens or early twenties.

They were painted, frozen on that stone balcony, by their brother Louis Ludwig Neustatter, born in Munich in 1829. I believe the painting of his two sisters was done in the tumultuous year or 1848, a year in which revolution swept across the European continent like tumbleweeds. He would have been a mere 19 or 20 at the time. It's an accomplished work, far better I think than his later saccharine genre paintings of simpering children picking wildflowers or prancing in adoring delight about a brown robed monk.

Neustatter became well known in subsequent years as a fashionable portrait painter, first in Vienna and later in the city of his birth, Munich. He was decorated by both King Ludwig II, he of Neuschwanstein Castle fame, and the rather tragic Emperor Franz Joseph I of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. (His reign wasn't tragic but his personal life was). From the former, Neustatter received the Bavarian Order of St. Michael and from the Emperor he was bestowed the Gold Cross of Merit.

Louis Ludwig Neustatter lived until the age of 70. He died in Tutzing on the shores of Lake Starnberg in 1899, where King Ludwig's body along with the body of a physician who had accompanied him on an ill fated walk, were found some 13 years earlier. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia he moved there in 1879:

"He next resided in Munich, removing in 1879 to Tutzing, which he was largely instrumental in making a place of popular resort. He was voted the freedom of the town in recognition of his efforts to improve and beautify it, he and his brother were the only resident Jews".

But back to the two ladies on the stone balcony. The Lady in White stands next to her sister at the top of an outdoor stone staircase. She is gesturing toward something unseeable by the viewer of the painting. The gazes of the sisters are fixed on whatever it is she is pointing out.

The Lady in Pink- her name was Fanny- is holding a closed ivory fan with fluffy feathers protruding from the top. My mother kept that fan, wrapped in old tissue paper, in the top drawer of an English campaign chest in her bedroom. Fannie's dress is a deep saturated pink, lighter where the sun strikes it. The bodice of the dress is fitted, rising from a deep V at narrow waist to a modestly low cut neckline that nevertheless exposes much of her shoulders. Filmy lace edges the neckline and short flutter sleeves, and a spray of white flowers decorates the center of it. She wears no jewelry- not so much as a ring- but the same type of flowers trail from the back of her head where her long hair is gathered. Beside her on the stone and leaning against the bench where she is seated is a lute.

The Lady in White stands close enough to her sister that their bodies are nearly touching in several places. She is clothed in a drift of satin and sheer lace. Her arms are partially covered by a matching lace shawl. Around her neck is a string of pearls that my mother wore from time to time. In her hair are two red flowers; camellias perhaps or roses.

The expression on both women's faces are similar; contemplative, dreamy and serene.

Despite the blue sky and sunlight and the white and pink dresses, the painting has always seemed visually dark to me, due, perhaps, to the dark trees which take up so much of the background.

All family histories have to start someplace and this painting seems as good a starting point as any for me to begin mine.

Some branches of the maternal side of my family are easily traced. They were well off, they achieved some degree of success in the societies they lived in. It's a bit confusing because cousins had a habit of marrying cousins. My maternal grandparents were 2nd cousins. On the other hand, they were German Jews which means that a lot of historical records have been violently erased.

Unless we know our direct ancestors and their siblings and other relations through letters, journals or diaries, we can only guess what they would have thought about anything. I imagine that it would have shocked Neustatter that he with his honors from German and Austrian royalty would have been consigned to ovens of Auschwitz which burned so steadily some 43 years after his own death in the peaceful welcoming town of Tutzing on the shores of Lake Starnberg.

[Galileo126]

1. Wow

...

I sorta kinda understand. My father's maternal side came from the Azore(s) Islands. They were ignorant (wrt to education). To this day, no one in my family can actually spell our family name, let alone trace it backward to the islands. The original name was changed at Ellis Island, by some guy who thought "it sorta sounds like this" and changed our family name to something more 'Anglo'.

What "they" would have thought about anything, you say? You are correct. We can only guess.

My family can only speak phonetically our last name, but cannot spell it.

Lost is who we ARE, seeking a connection, from whence we came. I have one thing, and one thing only, where my great grandma bequeathed to our family... a shall she wore on the 'boat'. Mom still has it, even though it belongs to my father's family. I Guess it's a lady thing. (Mom's side is from Italy. They, too...sadly, were illiterate.)

Unless we know our direct ancestors, Amen.... I did meet my great grand-mother, but I was 2yrs old. She was 91. I think that was the first long-term memory I had formulated. Talk about a child development study....

I enjoyed your writing. It's important to write what YOU think is important.

Well done, Cali. You have spurned a cascade of emotions, feelings, ideas, and well... a lost history. Be it yours, mine, or ours.


Well done!

[cali]

2. thank you so much. Writing has kind of been my "dirty" little secret for decades

I couldn't not write so I have lots of journals and essays and bits of short stories and lots of poetry, but I've shared practically none of it because I thought it was of poor quality and of no interest to anyone else.

I've always thought that my family history was interesting. On both sides are artists and well, titans of the business world. You wouldn't know their names but you'd know their products.

Your family history is of interest to me because I so wonder what the lives of people were like in the countries they immigrated from. And I think the Azores Islands are a very interesting place. Have you thought of doing more research?

Thanks again for your kind words.

[Galileo126]

3. Sadly, there isn't much point

If no one can spell our last name, how can I do research?

Anyone who could have are all dead now.

I, too, am interested in what people thought/were as they traveled to the US. Why leave your country? What was the motivation? What were you hoping for?

O, the questions do linger...

Keep up the writing - it doesn't matter if YOU think it doesn't matter... it will certainly spawn a discussion, if not a flood of ideas and emotions. Rock on.

[SheilaT]

4. I think the census bureau has some kind of a soundex

that might possibly allow you to figure out the original spelling.

Otherwise, since you know where the family was originally from, you might be able to contact people there who could possibly help you out.

Weren't the Azores settled mostly by the Portuguese? So the original name would have been Portuguese, which is a clue. And if I'm totally wrong about the main ethnicity of those in the Azores, a little research will find the correct one. Alternatively, if you have a pretty good idea when they came to this country, a lot of ship's records are available on line. Some years ago in the relatively early days of the internet, by husband found the ship's manifest showing my maternal grandfather's arrival in this country. It was quite something to see that.

[csziggy]

12. Ancestry has a Soundex - indexing by how name sound as well as spelling variations

Another way to search would be to try to contact people still living in the Azores. It's amazing how well small communities retain local history, even the stories of people who left generations ago. A lot of communities have web sites to promote their history.

In the 1980s my sister visited the village in Wales my great grandfather left in 1872. The postmistress recognized his name, knew the family, and gave her leads to find descendants of his siblings. Unfortunately all my sister's notes were lost after she died and her husband threw out most of her genealogy research.

[hunter]

8. Many of my own ancestors are "lost" and untraceable...

... but I suspect it's because the wanted it that way and I respect that.

A guy who jumps off a ship in San Francisco, or another guy dodging conscription, or a woman escaping an abusive relationship... they wouldn't want to be found.

[konrad]

5. pauline and fanny neustatter

I came across your description of the painting by chance and found your commentary very interesting. It certainly filled in my info on Ludwig.

Fanny Neustatter is my great grandmother. I suspect there are two similar pictures as one is in the possession of Fanny's American descendants.

I would be very interested in seeing a photo of the portrait in your possession and can of course let you have a photo of the other portrait. I suspect that there is also a second fan in existence.

I have always wondered if Ludwig painted his father Aaron.

[cali]

6. I have never heard of another portrait and

find that fascinating. I can't imagine painting two such works. Are you saying that the portrait you have or have access too fits the description of the one passed down thru my mother. btw, I didn't inherit the painting. One of my siblings did. I have a good photographic copy of it (though not life sized!)

btw, I am one of Fanny's direct American descendants.

[cali]

7. I responded to your private message

using the email address you gave me. It didn't work. What a shame.

[Shankapotomus]

9. It's amazing the rich family histories people have

I've never investigated my own. Probably because when I look at my parents I think: "Yea, we were probably kicked out of Italy."

[Jackpine Radical]

10. My father's family, originally from Denmark, homesteaded in South Dakota

in the early 1890's. My great-grandfather and his brother were--for lack of a better term--"co-patriarchs" of the tribe. In 1910, the majority of the family left SD for Saskatchewan, while my grandfather and one brother moved to Wisconsin. There was some contact by mail between the 2 branches, and I believe my grandfather took the family up to visit in Saskatchewan in the 1920's (either by rail or by Model T), but by my era, I had little knowledge of the Canadian branch. All that changed a few years ago when I made contact with one of my cousins via the Internet. We've maintained contact online ever since, & I now have knowledge and even pictures of my ancestors that would have been very difficult to obtain in the years before our wonderful worldwide communication system.

[derby378]

11. Amazing. Thank you for sharing!

[McCamy Taylor]

13. Beautiful!

[cali]

14. Thank you so much, McCamy