Baroness Harriet Freudenthal 1918
Three-quarter portrait in a seated position, legs crossed, hands resting on her thigh, head turned to the right, gaze directed into the distance. The subject wears a white chiffon blouse, over which she wears a light blue, sleeveless dress with a low neckline. To her left is a straw hat with a light blue hatband, black carrying straps, and a bouquet of roses. Background: Park landscape with a mighty tree, under whose foliage the subject sits beneath a cloudy sky.
JQAW# P_1918_050
Oil on canvas 111 x 87 cm
Signature: John Quincy Ɑdams 1918
Inscription in the upper left corner (by another hand?): Harriet Baronin Freudenthal geb. Baronin Parish
Private collection Europe
Harriet von Freudenthal, née Baroness Parish von Senftenberg, September 26, 1894, Heidelberg to October 7, 1944, Vienna.
Harriet was born in 1894 into the family of the Barons Parish of Senftenberg and had four siblings (Marie-Helene “Maya,” George Marmaduke, Charles, and Elisabeth “Siko”). The Parish family descend from a Hamburg merchant family with Scottish roots, which settled in Bohemia in the 19th century with the purchase of the Senftenberg estate (Žamberk in the border region between today's Czech Republic and Poland). John Parish (1774-1858, knighted in 1816 and ennobled as a baron in 1817) built an observatory in Senftenberg in 1844. Also well known is the daughter of his brother Richard, Harriet Parish, married name von Chelius (1834-1864), a gifted pianist to whom Robert Schumann dedicated his Op. 46, and who probably served as the namesake for Harriet. Harriet's father, Oscar Parish (1864–1925), was elevated to the Austrian baronial rank in 1899. Her mother, Adelheid (1872–1962), was born Baroness Wiedersperg von Wiedersperg, whose mother in turn came from the Bohemian noble family Dobrzensky. Harriet grew up in Senftenberg and Vienna, where she received a private, multilingual education (Czech, German, French). Her beauty and grace attracted public interest early: in 1912, the Wiener Salonblatt published the first photo of Harriet (see cross-references).
In 1917, Harriett met Rudolph Baron von Freudenthal (1886-1955), captain of the 15th Dragoon Regiment (a cavalry unit), at a reception at the Wiederspergs' castle. After suffering a serious war injury on the Isonzo front and falling ill, he had been assigned to the Imperial and Royal War Ministry in Vienna. The Freudenthals descend from Rudolf Count Wrbna und Freudenthal (1813-1883), who served the imperial family in a prominent position (among other things, he was general director of the court theaters, the Burgtheater and the court opera) and was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece, among other honors. Count Rudolf Wrbna remained unmarried throughout his life, but fathered a son, Carl, with Maria Müller, an illegitimate daughter of Prince Friedrich Schwarzenberg. Count Rudolf legitimized (recognized as his son) Carl in 1876, who then was elevated to the rank of baron by the emperor. Carl Baron von Freudenthal (1861-1941) married Agathe Gräfin von Wrbna und Freudenthal (1860-1921), the daughter of his cousin, in 1885 and acquired the Immendorf estate and castle in 1886. Carl and Agathe had three children: Carl, Margueritte, and Rudolf.
Rudolf and Harriet were married on May 15, 1918, in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna and took up residence at Immendorf Castle, a moated castle dating back to a medieval fortress that had been rebuilt several times (the moats were leveled in 1850) with four mighty corner towers, which has gone down in art history forever due to the numerous art treasures destroyed in a fire in 1945 (including 16 paintings by Gustav Klimt, see excursus below).
Harriet and Rudolf's marriage was blessed with seven children, who brought Harriet great joy, but also great sorrow due to the tragic death of two of them, which was a harbinger of Harriet's own premature death (from diphtheria). In 1920, Harriet's first child, her daughter Maria, died after complications during pregnancy and premature birth. Harriet's life was saved only by the intervention of Prof. Willhelm Weibl (whom Adams depicted alongside Professor Wertheim in his iconic 1909 painting The Operation) and Rudolf, who had rushed to bring Weibl from Vienna riding through wind and rain for hours. In 1933, the firstborn nine-year-old son and intended heir Rudi (Rudolf), who was an enthusiastic member of the Immendorf volunteer fire department, died of tetanus after a minor injury. Both blows of fate caused Harriet to suffer from severe depression. This required lengthy psychiatric treatment and also changed Harriet's character: the lightness of being an admired, graceful beauty gave way to a personality that carried out her tasks with discipline and a tightly organized daily routine: managing the household with numerous servants, caring for her father Oscar, who spent his last years at Immendorf Castle, working in the large vegetable and flower garden she had laid out, and doing charitable work. Through numerous home visits and donations, she tried to alleviate the difficult lives of the local population in economically difficult times (hyperinflation, housing and food shortages).
It was likely during one of her numerous visits to the poor that Harriet contracted an infectious disease (diphtheria) in 1944 and had to be treated in hospital in Vienna. During one of the many air raids, the patients were moved to the hospital basement, and Harriet died at the age of 50 after the ventilation in the basement rooms failed. Her tragic death was to be the prelude to further trials for the family: traumatic experiences at the hands of German and Soviet occupation troops in the final days of World War II and finally the loss of their home: a major fire, presumably set by retreating German units, destroyed Immendorf Castle and the art treasures stored there. The fire started on May 8, 1945, the last day of the war, and raged for four days and nights. Afterwards, Immendorf Castle was a ruin, which was demolished in the 1950s and used as building material for the reconstruction of war damage and for a new home for the Freudenthal family. However, the void left by Harriet's early death could not be filled.
Literature: A moving picture of the family history was published by Harriet's granddaughter Monique de Sinety in her story Immendorf. The French original was published by Editions Sutton (March 2025) ISBN: 978-2-8138-2110-2; and in German translation in November 2025 with ISBN: 978-2-8138-2110-2.
Excursus: Immendorf Castle - Austria
After Austria had long been considered the “air-raid shelter” of the German Reich (it could not be reached by Allied bombers), the situation changed in 1943 with the Allied invasion of Italy. Now, targets in Austria were also within reach of Allied bombers. In order to secure the art treasures stored in museums, a large-scale relocation of art treasures began. First, bomb-proof storage locations (salt mines in Ischl and Altaussee) were selected, second also so-called rescue locations such as castles, monasteries, or churches were chosen for safe-storage, whose peripheral location promised protection from bombing raids. To spread the risk, objects were stored in widely scattered locations. In Lower Austria alone, there were around 200 safe-storage sites, around 80 of which were within the Vienna area.
As early as 1942, Rudolf and Harriet agreed to make Immendorf Castle available as a safe-storage site for a minimal, symbolic rent (40 Reichsmarks per month) (the alternatives were the forced quartering of refugees or troops). It is noteworthy that most of the correspondence with the state authorities was conducted by Harriet, as evidenced by archival sources shown in the 2025 MAK exhibition on Immendorf.
Already in 1942, the first art shipment (the confiscated art collection of the Polish Count Lanckoronski) were stored in the castle (but moved to Thürnthal Castle in 1943). In March 1943, after the end of the Klimt memorial exhibition held at the Secession, 16 Klimt paintings, mostly from the confiscated collection of the Lederer family, were brought to Immendorf. Among these Klimt works were the famous three faculty paintings that Klimt created on behalf of the Ministry of Culture for the main hall of the University of Vienna: Philosophy and Jurisprudence (Lederer Collection) and Medicine (in the Modern Gallery, Belvedere, since 1919) as well as studies for them. (The fourth, very conventional faculty painting, Theology, was painted by Franz Matsch and has been preserved.) The Klimt paintings were met with fierce rejection, especially from university members, when they were first exhibited, causing a scandal. Klimt withdrew the works and returned his (already spent) fee to the ministry (the repayment was financed by the Lederer family). In addition to the Klimt works, paintings by Ernst Klimt and Egon Schiele were also stored in Immendorf Castle. In November-December 1943, an extensive collection from the Museum of Decorative Arts (today's MAK) followed, comprising antique tiled stoves, entire room furnishings, pieces of furniture, carpets, and numerous art objects. With the exception of the few remaining private rooms of the family, Immendorf Castle was filled to the brim with priceless works of art. (Art experts estimate [based on today's astronomical market prices] the value of the stored Klimt paintings alone at up to 4 billion Euros.)
By early 1945, the defeat of Nazi Germany was already looming. On March 12, Vienna fell victim to the heaviest bombing raid (another raid indirectly led to Harriet's death in 1944), which severely damaged the State Opera, the Albertina, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, and the Hofburg, among other buildings, and the Red Army crossed the Austrian border from Hungary. Rudolf sent the children (after one of his daughters had been raped by German soldiers) to relatives, the van der Straten family, in the remote Weinern Castle, but continued to hold his position in Immendorf Castle. A celebration organized by local Nazi bigwigs for the Führer's birthday on April 20 in front of the castle was observed by the Red Army and prompted them to drop small bombs from light aircraft. Although this did not cause major structural damage, all the window panes were broken. To secure the art treasures, the windows were sealed with sheet metal, ordered by the Central Office for Monument Protection (which would later prove fatal during the fire).
At the beginning of May 1945, the castle was occupied by retreating SA units of the Feldherrnhalle Division. Rudolf was ordered to leave the castle and he left Immendorf during the night of May 5 to 6, 1945. The German units withdrew on the morning of May 8, the official end of World War II, and Red Army troops occupied the castle in the afternoon of the same day. Around 6 p.m., a fire broke out in the southwestern tower of the castle and spread rapidly. The Russian soldiers fled. On the morning of May 9, 1945, the fire appeared to have been extinguished. However, in the early hours of May 10, 1945, a fire broke out again on the second floor of the castle, spreading to the rooms on the first floor and the ground floor. By the next day, the entire building had burned down. Only the outer walls of the castle remained standing, with rubble piled meters high inside. The fire was presumably deliberately set by incendiary devices installed by the SA units in the days before their retreat. It is unlikely that Soviet troops were involved in the fire.
The bottom line is that the fire destroyed all the works of art, although there is speculation that individual works may have been stolen by retreating troops or local looters. However, the window of opportunity between May 6-7 and May 9, when the castle sat unguarded, was short, the art objects were mostly of extremely large formats, and everyone on site certainly had more existential concerns than caring for art icons. Not a single one of the known stored objects has ever reappeared in the 80 years that have passed since the fire, which suggests their loss is irretrievable. Immendorf represents Austria's greatest loss of art during World War II. Also one of Adam's major works, the 1906 portrait of his wife Steffy from the Belvedere Museum's collection, was also lost (disappeared) in 1945 during its safe-storage in Kirchstätten Castle.
Exhibited
Literature
Provenance
Until 1944/45 the parents and siblings of the sitter, Senftenberg castle (Žamberk CZ).
1945 nationalized.
At unknown date moved to Opočno (CZ) castle,
Opočno Inv.Nr. OP02374/001.
After 1990 restituted to the family descendants,
private collection Europe.