Julius Friedrich Anton Schrader (German, 1815-1900) Portrait of Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke...

Julius Friedrich Anton Schrader (German, 1815-1900) Portrait of Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke unsigned; identified on a presentation plaque; with a label from Simon Gillespie, London (affixed to the frame reverse) oil on canvas 141.5 x 99.5 cm (55 11/16 x 39 3/16in). framed 173.5 x 134.0 x 7.0 cm (68 5/16 x 52 3/4 x 2 3/4 in). Footnotes: Provenance Sale, Sotheby's, The Collection of the Margraves and Grand Dukes of Baden, October 10-14, 1995, lot 3781. The present private collection (acquired from the previous). Literature Gerda Franziska Kircher, Zähringer Bildnissammlung, Im Neuen Schloß zu Baden-Baden (Karlsruhe: G. Braun, 1958), p. 154, no 762. N.B. Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke (1800-1891) was a German general and chief of staff of the Prussian Army. Moltke was a well-respected and well-known military leader, theorist, and strategist. He was also one of the first directors of the Hamburg-Berlin railway and was particularly interested in the implications of rail travel for military strategy. From 1835-1837, he traveled throughout the Ottoman Empire advising the Sultan Mahmud II on the modernization of the Ottoman army. He later served as personal adjutant to Prince Henry of Prussia, served as personal aide and mentor to Prince Frederick William (Emperor Frederick III), and attended the 1855 coronation of Alexander III of Russia. In 1866 Moltke planned and led the Prussian military strategy of the Austro-Prussian War. He was made a count (Graf) in 1870 and promoted to field marshal in 1871. On October 26 1890 he turned 90, and on this occasion a German national holiday was declared. Moltke's military theory remains immensely influential in military strategic history. He was influenced by Prussian theorist Carl von Clausewitz, who highlighted the moral implications of warfare, and by Napoleon's use of modern weaponry and of enveloping, rather than front-heavy, attack. Moltke's broad military thesis was that strategy should be a system of options rather than a stringent order of operations, which would allow for flexibility throughout the battle as circumstances developed and unfolded often unpredictably. This is summarized in his statement that 'No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength' (Helmuth Graf von Moltke, Militarische Werke, vol. 2, part 2, pp. 33–40). Moltke was also a published author. His works include a romance titled The Two Friends (1827), two essays titled Holland and Belgium in their Mutual Relations, from their Separation under Philip II to their Reunion under William I (1831) and An Account of the Internal Circumstances and Social Conditions of Poland (1832), a collection of personal letters titled Letters on Conditions and Events in Turkey in the Years 1835 to 1839 (1839), an article titled What Considerations should determine the Choice of the Course of Railways? (1843), and The Russo-Turkish Campaign in Europe, 1828-1829 (1845). In 1889 Moltke used Thomas Edison's recently invented cylinder phonograph - brought to Germany by Edison's colleague Adelbert Theodor Wangemann - to make two voice recordings of a passage from Shakespeare's Hamlet (Act 1, Scene 3) and a passage from Goethe's Faust. Both recordings were lost until 1957 and remained unidentified until 2012. These recordings are the only known recordings of a person born in the 18th century, making Moltke the earliest-born human whose voice is preserved. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing