Portrait of Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Heinrich von Angeli's 1874 portrait of Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia, is one of the most significant official portraits of the newly unified German Empire's first Kaiser. Wilhelm I had been proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles in 1871, and portraits of the new Emperor were politically essential documents of the new nation's prestige and dynastic legitimacy. Von Angeli, who painted royal portraits for courts across Europe, brought the full authority of his grand manner to this commission for the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin, creating an image commensurate with the significance of the event his sitter had personified.

Von Angeli employs the vocabulary of the imperial portrait at its most authoritative — military uniform, decorations, commanding pose — rendered with his characteristic fluid, assured brushwork. The Emperor's aged but commanding face is modeled with careful attention, balancing individual characterization with formal dignity.