Robert B. Sowby and Dr. Michelle Stott James, German and Slavic Languages
The Sophie Project, led by Dr. Michelle James, is an ongoing mentored research project which focuses on collecting and studying the written works of German-speaking women. The Sophie Project is currently publishing a five-volume Critical Edition Series, the first volume of which will be the Critically Annotated Works of Elisa von der Recke. My contribution to the project involved researching and locating more than a dozen portraits of Recke and writing an analytical essay to accompany them in the publication.
Elisa von der Recke (1754–1833) was central to much that was happening culturally at her time. Her writings were influenced by a childhood of misguided discipline, a forced aristocratic marriage and scandalous divorce, the premature deaths of family members, and her involvement with a criminal spiritualist imposter whom she later exposed. These writings raised Recke to a unique cultural prominence not usually achieved by women. She socialized with renowned authors, philosophers, and artists, such as J.W. Goethe and Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, and held significant literary salons in her home. Her writings provide a commentary on the political, literary, intellectual, and philosophical discussions and movements of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Vital to the publication’s success was understanding how Recke fit into the social and intellectual milieu of her time. We had to understand how Recke was viewed—literally, how she was depicted. Portraits of Recke could reveal how others regarded this prominent figure and are valuable tools for understanding her writings, life, and cultural influence.
Despite the importance of the portraits and their role in the Critically Annotated Works, little had been done to pursue them. Beginning in 2008 I worked with Dr. James to fill this research gap by:
· Gathering additional information about the locations and history of the portraits. Using the few known paintings of Recke as a starting point, for months we searched for portraits, sketches, busts, and other likenesses of Recke. After extensive preparatory research, during a trip to Germany in 2009 I was able to locate some of the portraits, photograph them, and find clues to additional ones.
· Obtaining reproducible (i.e., digital) images of these portraits and written permission to use them in our publication. This phase is still ongoing and includes writing business letters and other requests to the German libraries, museums, galleries, and private collections which possess the paintings.
· Consulting art historians and other experts to better understand the background of the known paintings and their artists.
· Analyzing the portraits. Close study of Recke’s portraits, through both artistic and cultural-historical approaches, helped us understand her role in her intellectual and social environment. This was the core of our project; my analysis will be a key component of the biographical essay to be included in the publication.
It has taken almost three years to gather Recke’s writings from all across Europe. Isolated, obscure, and often in poor condition, these writings have now been transcribed and compiled thanks to the Sophie Project. As Dr. James stated in our MEG proposal, in this publication “we are not only rendering service by making all of [Recke’s] works available from one source for the first time, we are also providing a work of preservation, without which many of these texts may soon be irretrievably lost.” Now, with the addition of more than a dozen portraits and an accompanying critical essay, the collection will be nearly complete.
Although most of the research and writing has been completed, the actual publication is still in process; others are working on the formatting and layout of the 1500-page Critically Annotated Works. The volume should be completed later in 2010.
