Expensive furniture and decor from the Rococo period are highlights of the permanent exhibition in Duke Carl Eugen von Württemberg's former private apartment. Closed for restoration since 2004, the rooms again display beautiful Rococo style.
Assembly room with expressive decor.
As of 1757, Duke Carl Eugen had several rooms on the third floor of the new central building converted to his private apartment. This is where the duke met with his closest friends. The rooms were the setting for many conversations, games and music. The decor partly reflects what these rooms were used for: gilded stucco and carvings in the assembly room depict musical instruments, an allusion to the room's occasional use as an intimate concert hall.
Diverse decor: stucco, paintings and wall coverings.
The playful charm of Rococo art can be found in both cabinets adjoining the salons. It was possible to reconstruct the hand-painted flower and bird wall coverings in the light blue corner room. The paintings of playful cherubs and scenes of gallantry above the doors and windows were done by Württemberg's court painter, Adolf Friedrich Harper. Duke Carl Eugen engaged the important fresco painter Matthäus Günther for the paintings in the other rooms.
The first antechamber is decorated with family portraits.
Large-format portraits set the tone in the first antechamber. They depict a young Duke Carl Eugen, his bride, Elisabeth Friederike Sophie, and her mother, Margravine Wilhelmine von Brandenburg-Bayreuth, a sister of the King of Prussia, Friedrich the Great. The paintings were done by the Prussian court painter, Antoine Pesne. Duke Carl Eugen repeatedly commissioned valuable pieces of furniture directly from Paris, including both dressers, which were built by Jacques-Philippe Carel around 1750.
Duke Carl Eugen owned a number of pieces of fine French furniture, some of which he had purchased on his travels in France.
