Pencil sketch for "The Miracle of the Roses of St. Elisabeth", mural by Moritz von Schwind (1803-1871), which is located in the Wartburg Palace (picture cycle for St. Elisabeth).

One day, when Landgravine Elisabeth was walking down from the Wartburg to the town of Eisenach to give bread to the poor as usual, her husband Ludwig hoch came towards her on horseback. The landgrave disapproved of his wife's well-known charity and so asked her harshly what she was wearing in her apron. Elisabeth replied that they were only roses. Ludwig, who didn't believe her, told her to open her apron. And miraculously the bread inside had turned into roses. Ashamed of his unfounded distrust, Landgrave Ludwig is said to have never again asked his wife what she was wearing in her apron to town.

The well-known legend of the "miracle of the roses" was captured by the painter Moritz von Schwind in 1855 in a mural in the Elisabeth Gallery of the Wartburg. To this day, the painting is probably the best-known from the entire cycle, which illustrates important stages in the life of the landgrave, who was canonized in 1235. This magnet features the mural located above a doorway.

Literature: Moritz von Schwind, Meister der Spätromantik, , by Siegmar Holsten, edition State Art Hall in Carlsruhe, 1997.

Inscription: unsigned.

Technique: drawing on paper, framed.

measurements: unframed w 11 3/4" x h 16 1/2"(30x42 cm), framed 13>" x 17 3/4" (33 x 45 cm).

Condition: very good.