Portraits, Music, Richard Wagner, Cosmia Wagner, Siegfried Wagner, Tribschen

L'Isola dei beati – Wagner in Tribschen, 1870 | Liebig Advertising Painting

„L’Isola dei beati – Triebschen – Wagner dirige l’idillo di Siegfried sul pianerottolo della sua casa (1870)”

Original oil painting on heavy paper, highly varnished, depicting Richard Wagner conducting the Siegfried Idyll at his home in Tribschen near Lucerne in 1870. The work is associated with Liebig Fleisch-Extract advertising and is executed with Italian-language advertising text.

The upper right bears the inscription „Riccardo Wagner“. At lower left is the Liebig advertising text. The glass depicted in the advertisement carries German lettering, with the Italian inscription beneath: „Vero estratto di carne Liebig“ (Liebig genuine meat extract).

The scene shows Wagner conducting approximately 15 musicians in the stairway of his house at Tribschen as they perform the Siegfried Idyll. Cosima Wagner, holding the young Siegfried in her arms, stands near a doorway listening to the performance.

Liebig meat-extract advertising was issued in multiple languages, including German, Italian, and French, commonly as series of small-format collectible advertising cards. This large oil-painted work, measuring approximately 38 × 59 cm (15 × 23¼ inches), is therefore particularly intriguing. Its substantial size raises the possibility that it may have served as an original design, study, or presentation model for the Italian Liebig advertising series, although this cannot be established with certainty.

The title uses the historical spelling „Triebschen“; the locality is today generally known as Tribschen, a district of Lucerne, Switzerland.

A fascinating piece of 19th-century advertising art, Wagneriana, Liebig memorabilia, and music history, combining one of Richard Wagner's most celebrated domestic musical episodes with the commercial imagery of Liebig's famous meat-extract advertisements.