The painting above the commode shows the Lieutnant de Roi François de Théas de Thoranc. During the French occupation of Frankfurt from 1759 to 1762 in the Seven Years’ War he was quartered on the first floor of Goethe’s family house. As civil governor and highest authority for all questions of civil law, he received many visitors each day. For Goethe’s father, who highly valued his privacy and was not politically on the side of the French, the situation was not easy to accept. The mother and the children got on better with the French quartering, as it created a great deal of diversion.

Meanwhile, Count Thoranc was behaving impeccably. He would not even have his maps nailed to the walls, for fear of ruining the new wallpaper. His personnel was adroit, quiet, and orderly. But admittedly, since he was given no peace by day or night […], there was a hum of activity in our moderately-sized house (planned for only one family and having an open staircase that led to all floors) as if in a beehive, although all activities were conducted in a very restrained, serious, and precise manner.

Goethe: From My Life. Poetry and Truth, part 1 , book 3