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ice flowers: are they alive?

Myles Byrne @neuroplastic.bsky.social · Apr 7 Frankfurt

Here Goethe is recognisably Goethe and not the god Apollo with curly locks;

the ladies in the party remain in the carriage (on the left); Goethe is shown prominently holding the train of his mother's coat, a feature which was only contained in Bettina's letter.

The detailed representation of the Alte Mainbrücke (now long gone), with its rounded arches and prominent buttresses also relate well to Bettina's account, compared with Kaulbach's vague background hint at the presence of the bridge.

Ludwig Pietsch (1824-1911),
Goethe auf dem Eise in Frankfurt a.M.
Original drawing.

Woodcut appeared in the Illustrirte Zeitung, Goethe-Nummer, 24. August 1899, S. 245.

Kaulbach takes poetic licence to its extremes in portraying the tall, dashing Goethe skating effortlessly across the ice under the delighted eyes of his female tribe:

his adoring mother, his sister Cornelia (with the snowball) and Maximiliane von La Roche (muse and friend of Goethe's and mother of Bettina von Arnim).

Wilhelm von Kaulbach's spirited re-imagining of the skating episode in Book 16 of Dichtung und Wahrheit:

Wilhelm von Kaulbach (1805-1874), Der junge Goethe auf dem Eise, 1867. Image: Universität Düsseldorf

ice flowers: are they alive?

addendum to ice flowers on the Baltic 2026-02-21

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