The Parents’ Portrait

Because of the tense political situation in Hamburg, Runge moved to his family in Wolgast in April 1806. That summer he painted his parents there, Daniel Nikolaus and Magdalena Dorothea Runge. They stand arm in arm in their Sunday best in front of their house, looking straight at us. The mother holds a rose, the father his hat and walking stick. In the background are the shipyard where the father worked, and ships.

Beside the grandparents two grandchildren play at a tall fire lily: Otto Sigismund, Runge’s son, and Friedrich, the son of his brother Jacob. Old and young, two generations in one picture – for Runge an image of the cycle of life.

A hundred years after the original, in 1906, a copy of the parents’ portrait was made. It is attributed to the painter Julius von Ehren (1864–1944). It is owned by the Town of Wolgast and has until now been on display in the Rungehaus.

Original and copy show the same scene but tell different stories: one of Runge’s work and his path to Hamburg, the other of how this picture remains present in Runge’s home town. What does a picture tell when it lives on in two places?

For Runge’s 250th birthday the Wolgast copy is being restored. On 19 October 2026 the conservator Jenny Louise Heymel took the painting down in the Rungehaus, packed it and brought it to her studio. There she first recorded the condition of the painting in detail.

The planned work includes cleaning, removing the old varnish, stabilising the canvas, retouching and reworking the ornamental frame. Every step is documented in photographs and in writing. We will report on the progress here.