Prince Alois I von Liechtenstein
1759–1805
Eduard Ströhling (before 1766 – c. 1828/29), Portrait of Prince Alois I von Liechtenstein (1759–1805), before 1794
Predecessor
Prince Franz Josef I von Liechtenstein
Successor
Prince Johann I von LiechtensteinPrince Alois I von Liechtenstein devoted himself mainly to economic reforms on the family estates and to cultural life. He was keenly devoted to his library, expanding its holdings with the acquisition of entire collections. He employed the architect Joseph Hardtmuth to completely remodel the Reigning Prince’s residence on Vienna’s Herrengasse. With the creation of the palace’s monumental Library the entire family holdings of books and manuscripts were assembled in one place for the first time. At Eisgrub (Lednice) and Feldsberg (Valtice) he made a start on transforming the Baroque gardens into a large landscaped park.
The eldest son of Franz Josef I (1726–1781) and his wife Leopoldine, Alois I was born in Vienna on 14 May 1759. He married Countess Karoline Felicitas zu Manderscheidt-Blankenheim (1768–1831) on 16 November 1783. The marriage remained childless. Alois I died in Vienna on 24 March 1805.
Among all the Liechtenstein reigning princes Alois I is the one who seems to have most completely taken to heart Karl Eusebius I’s (1611–1684) advice to steer clear of politics and military affairs. His interests were devoted to enlarging and developing the family’s extensive estates, to the almost complete rebuilding of the Reigning Prince’s residence on Herrengasse in Vienna, and to the expansion of the Collections, particularly with regard to books, to which end he purchased entire libraries. He was equally committed to developing the family’s collection of paintings.
CONTEMPORARY GARDEN DESIGN
Alois I’s interest in agriculture also underlay an import part of his activities. In particular he devoted himself to the large-scale transformation of the tract of land between Eisgrub (Lednice) and Feldsberg (Valtice), at the confluence of the rivers Thaya and Morava, into an extensive landscape park, a project that was to achieve its ultimate dimensions under the reign of his brother and successor Prince Johann I (1760–1836).
Alois I acquired his expert knowledge of the subject during the course of wide-ranging journeys and from studying the latest literature. He applied this knowledge to the modernization and rationalization of the princely estates. He introduced new methods of production, conducted experiments in breeding and imported many crop and decorative plants from abroad, both for economic reasons and out of purely botanical interest.
Prince Alois I applied the knowledge he had gained on his travels and from studying the latest literature on the subject to the modernization and rationalization of the princely estates.
These interests also manifested themselves in the Collections, where the work known as the “Hortus Botanicus” is preserved to this day. Consisting of fourteen leather-bound folios with gouaches by the Bauer brothers from Feldsberg (Josef Anton, Franz Andreas, Ferdinand Lukas), it illustrates the world of native and exotic plants with which they were familiar.
NEW BUILDINGS FOR TOWN AND COUNTRY
Scattered about the parks were various architectural structures in different styles. Mostly designed by Joseph Hardtmuth (1758–1816), some of them were completed or designed by Josef Kornhäusel (1782–1860). This close harmony between architecture and surrounding landscape created a richly varied ambience, an aspect fundamental to an understanding of landscape design at the end of the eighteenth century.
Prince Alois I also renovated many of the Liechtenstein residences and churches whose living was in the family’s gift. His most important contribution in this field was the remodelling, or to be more accurate the rebuilding of the Reigning Prince’s residence on Vienna’s Herrengasse. He commissioned a palace that would be suited to the demands of the age, the central wing of which housed the stables, riding school and the three-aisled Library ranged one above the other. To the rear of the building was a chancellery wing which contained the administrative offices.
After the Court Library, the Library was the most important in Vienna, uniting more than 100,000 volumes that had previously been dispersed among the various family residences. Sadly these premises did not survive. The furnishings and contents of the Library were transferred to the Gentlemen’s Apartments on the ground floor of the palace in the Rossau between 1912 and 1914 before the final demolition of the palace on Herrengasse.
United in the Library were more than 100,000 volumes that had previously been dispersed between the various family residences.
After the family’s interest in their famous horses had diminished, the riding school on the second floor was converted to become the Bösendorfer concert hall, to which the Viennese concert-going public bade mournful farewell at a concert given by the Rosé Quartet in 1913, an event movingly described by Stefan Zweig in “The World of Yesterday”.
THE EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE COLLECTIONS
In the salons of the Reigning Prince’s residence on Herrengasse hung many of the paintings of family members commissioned by the prince, the most splendid of which were the two monumental idealized portraits of Karoline von Liechtenstein (wife of Prince Alois I) as the goddess Iris, and her sister Maria Josepha Hermenegilde Esterházy as Ariadne on Naxos. They were commissioned from Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755–1842) when the artist was visiting Vienna in 1793/94.
The prince’s post-mortem inventory from 1805–1807 would seem to indicate that he united the holdings from the various family estates in the gallery of the Reigning Prince in the palace on Bankgasse.
Other contemporary artists who received commissions from the prince included Heinrich Friedrich Füger (1751–1818), Joseph Hickel (1736–1807) and Francesco Casanova (1727–1802). In 1803 the prince visited the Roman studio of Antonio Canova (1757–1822), who was working on several sculptures for him, none of which we can now identify. Alois I also made changes in the main princely gallery in the palace on Bankgasse, removing works that he deemed of lesser quality between 1799 and 1800. Three hundred and six of his own acquisitions hung in the gallery. The prince’s post-mortem inventory from 1805–1807 would seem to indicate that he united the holdings from the various family estates in the gallery of the Reigning Prince in the palace on Bankgasse. From 1810 they were to be made accessible to the general public in the Garden Palace in the Rossau, which was adapted as a new gallery building.
Alois I developed a close interest not only in books but also engravings, of which he acquired thousands, some of them in the form of commissions. The engraving of the “Roman Ruin at Schönbrunn” was dedicated to the prince by the engravers Laurenz Janscha (1749–1812) and Johann Ziegler (1749–1802) in 1785.
The image of a prince with versatile cultural interests is rounded off by Alois I's commitment to theatre and music. He had the palace theatre at Feldsberg renovated, engaged a theatre troupe and employed a resident band (the ‘Fürstliche Harmoniemusik’), whose sheet music has been preserved in the holdings of the Austrian National Library and has recently been published.
The image of a prince with versatile cultural interests is rounded off by Alois’s I commitment to theatre and music.
