The book “The Courland Album. A Portrait of an Era Through Keepsake Album Images From the End of the 18th to the First Half of the 19th Century” in its original form is a collection of unrelated and un-ordered images, yet linked by a common provenance – the legacy of one particular family. This catalogue has been arranged in accordance with the usual principles of keepsake album editing, placing the images in a chronological order that best reflects the passage of time. The compilers of this album have made small deviations from the chronological order to highlight the contribution of one particular artist, or works that could possibly be attributed to him or her by assembling such works together.
The Courland Album is a testament to the transmission of ideas and images, to communications with the intercedence of images. In its time, The Courland Album existed at the juncture where Courland and Europe met and resonated. You could also say it is a Jelgava–Düsseldorf album. The story of the Groschke family gives Jelgava one of the most colourful pages in its history. The presence of Schadow, on its turn, has enriched The Courland Album in the same way that the presence of the ladies from Courland enriched Schadow’s life in Düsseldorf. As the testimony to the Groshcke-Klein family history the album is a natural addition to the annals of cultural history of our country. At the same time a genealogical thread links it with the most distinguished representatives of the European art world of their time.
Aija Taimiņa
