Portraits of Moses Mendelssohn and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.

Two miniature portraits depicting Moses Mendelssohn and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, painted in gouache on miniature-sized boards, after 1772 engravings by Johann Friedrich Bause, made after original paintings by Anton Graff.

A strong, long-standing friendship prevailed between Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), a Jewish-German pioneer of the Haskalah movement, and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781), a German philosopher and one of the most important playwrights of the Enlightenment era. Lessing introduced Mendelssohn to his circle of intellectuals, and in 1755 the two produced a joint composition 'Pope a Metaphysician' ('Pope ein Metaphysiker!'). In his writings, Lessing argued against prejudice and for religious tolerance and the reign of reason, and through his close friendship with Mendelssohn, who was considered the first 'modern German Jew', Lessing practiced what he preached, unlike many of his contemporaries.

Lessing wished to undermine the popular negative image of the Jews. In one of his first plays, 'The Jews', the main character is a decent, exemplary and moral Jew. In his later play 'Nathan the Wise', inspired by Mendelssohn, his character of the Jewish merchant is likewise depicted as an intelligent and noble person, contrary to the prevailing stereotype.

Two portraits, gouache on boards, framed and glazed; portrait size: 11 x 10 cm (approx.), frames: 13.5 x 15.5 cm; good overall condition, minor blemishes to portraits, a dampstain to Mendelssohn's portrait; frames with fractures, chips & loss, some glue repairs, with paper to verso of Lessing's portrait partly detached.