A family reunion of a special kind took place at the Falkenhof Museum Rheine: Members of the Schilgen family from Berlin, Münster and Heidelberg came together to entrust a donation to the City Museums: They brought with them a painting and an armchair that had been continuously cherished in the family’s possession for 185 years. The contact to the museum was mediated by Helmut Lechte, chairman of the museum foundation Rheine, who together with mayor Dr. Peter Lüttmann and museum director Dr. Mechthild Beilmann-Schöner accepted the donation with pleasure.
The focus on this day was a painting from 1837, created by the well-known artist Carl Weddige, who was born in 1815 in Rheine. In order to receive a solid artistic education, Weddige had already left his hometown at the age of 18 and initially studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy before settling permanently in Amsterdam as a freelance painter after several trips. However, he maintained contact with his hometown throughout his life, as many of his relatives lived in the Emsstadt. When he painted the genre scene in 1837, which shows the cozy get-together of a grandmother with her granddaughter, this was his first attempt at genre painting ever, that is, in the reproduction of a very everyday scene. He depicted the ambience in great detail, so that even today’s viewers of the picture can immerse themselves in the bygone era, when the room furnishings were characterized by a spinning wheel and reel, a copper tea kettle and a high armchair – the very armchair that has now also been given to the Falkenhof Museum. And as “models” for his genre painting, Carl Weddige used two people at the time who were well known to him: his great-aunt Maria Theodora Schilgen and her granddaughter Mathilde Sträter.
Helmut Lechte also pointed out the references to the town history of Rheine. He recalled the jurist Dr. Johannes Schilgen, who was elected mayor of the town several times in the 18th century, and three generations of the family who played an important role in providing health care for the population as medical officers around 1800/1850. Among them was Karl Friedrich Schilgen, the husband of the old lady portrayed in the painting. Mayor Peter Lüttmann expressed his special thanks for the trust placed in the museum and explained that the Falkenhof Museum will now be responsible for the preservation and conservation of the two objects as well as for making the donation accessible to the public through presentations, guided tours and educational programs for schools. The painting can currently be viewed in the cabinet on the second floor of the Falkenhof, where it is exhibited together with several other Weddige paintings and the “Album Rheinense”. The armchair first needs to be restored before it is suitable for presentation in the exhibition collection.