"Pintsch ist vortreflich, er soll künftig Thiere malen." : několik poznámek ke vzniku dvojice podobizen rodiny Hugo II. Karla Eduarda ze Salm-Reiffersc

In the picture gallery of the chateau in Rájec nad Svitavou are to be found two portraits of the family of Altgraf Hugo II Karl Eduard zu Salm-Reifferscheidt with an almost identical composition, which were painted by the artists Joseph Führich and Josef Vojtěch Hellich in the first half of the 1830s. Extensive research in the family archive of the Rájec Salm-Reifferscheidts has not only made it possible to be more precise about the date and circumstances in which the two works were painted, but has also fully clarified the reasons which led to them being commissioned within a mere two years of each other. The portrait was intended to document the appearance of the family of the young Altgraf for the private needs of his parents Hugo II Franz and Maria Josepha zu Salm-Reifferscheidt. However, because the first version, painted by Joseph Führich during the course of 1832, totally failed to meet their expectations, Josef Vojtěch Hellich was approached in 1834 and asked to produce a new version of Führich's painting. The circumstances in which the paintings in Rájec were created testify to the fact that non-artistic aspects often played a much larger role in the evaluation of paintings by those who had commissioned them. In the case of portraits the degree of documentary fidelity and appropriate idealisation played a particularly important role.