Carl Canow: Joachim Christian Thormann and Elisabeth Maria Sophia Thormann, née Möller

• Carl Canow, portrait: Joachim Christian Thormann
• Carl Canow, portrait: Elisabeth Maria Sophia Thormann née Möller
• both oil on canvas, 1852, width: 63.0 cm

Johann Christian Hinrich Thormann (1775–1857), merchant and furrier, and his wife, Elisabeth Maria Sophia Thormann (1782–1848), belonged to a distinguished Wismar bourgeois family. It is probable that they supported the artist during his training. Their son, the architect Gustav Heinrich Thormann (1816–1890), commissioned in 1856 the genre painting “Return of the farmer in the evening.” He left the city of Wismar a foundation for the further training of young craftsmen.

In 1891 the museum director, Friedrich Schlie, acquired from his legacy one of the most significant collections of furniture, porcelain, faiences, glassware and paintings for the grand ducal museum in Schwerin. The paintings and a collection of books owned by a descendant in Lübeck, Dr. Ing. Hans-Ulrich Thormann, have been part of the collection of the Mecklenburg Foundation since it was set up in 1973.