Information

Caputh House is the oldest pleasure palace in the Potsdam area that has survived from the time of Great Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg (1620-1688). From 1671 onward, Electress Dorothea, his second wife, had the house by the Havel River expanded to a sumptuously decorated country manor. King Frederick William I in Prussia (1688-1740) decorated the summerhouse’s dining hall with approximately 7,500 Dutch faience tiles, which still is on view today.

Today, the collection of artworks includes about 100 paintings by Dutch and Flemish artists. A portrait-series of roman emperors, painted by twelve of the most eminent Dutch and Flemish painters of around 1616-1625, such as Peter Paul Rubens, Abraham Janssens, Gerard van Honthorst, Michiel van Mierevelt, Paulus Moreelse, Abraham Bloemaert and others, is one ofthe highlights in Caputh. The series originates from the collection of the stadholders Maurits or Frederick Hendrik of Orange-Nassau.

Artworks by court painters of the Great Elector and his son, King Frederik I, give us an intriguing impression of the art production in Berlin of around 1650-1700. These include paintings by e.g. Willem Fredriksz. van Royen, Henri de Fromantiou, Abraham andGedeon Romandon, Ottomar Elliger the elder, Jacques Vaillant, Nicolaes Willingh, Michiel Maddersteeg and Samuel Theodor Gericke. Of particular importance is a series of paintings depicting scenes from the Aeneid, painted by Mattheus Terwesten in 1702 as decoration for a room in the house of a member of the municipal government in The Hague.

Dr. Alexandra Nina Bauer, Curator of German, Dutch and Flemish Paintings (May 2020)

Caputh House is administered by the Foundation of Prussian Palaces and Gardens.

Collection catalogues

Schloss und Park Caputh 
Gerd Schurig, Claudia Sommer
Potsdam 2009