Adam Eberle

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Adam Eberle (born March 27, 1804 in Aachen , † April 15, 1832 in Rome ) was a German history painter and lithographer of the Romantic period .

Live and act

The son of cutler Philipp Eberle and Elisabeth Franzin, born in Aachen, came to Düsseldorf as a child through a professional move of his parents and soon showed his inclination to artistic activity. After completing his school education, on the advice of his father, he therefore attended the Düsseldorf Art Academy , where a little later in 1819 the new director Peter von Cornelius took office. Eberle drew attention to himself with his first major work, The Entombment of Christ , and very soon became one of the most talented and most capable favorite pupils of Cornelius. Due to his special talent, Eberle was increasingly involved as an assistant to his master in processing his numerous and varied assignments.

“Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria, raised to electoral prince. 1623. “ - Fresco in the arcades of the Munich court garden

Thanks to its progress Eberle was one next to Hermann Anschütz and Wilhelm Kaulbach to the circle of those who Cornelius in the summer of 1825 after Munich took to there with for quite some time of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria in order given and already begun reshaping the Glyptotek continue and at the same time to take up the post of director of the Munich Academy . After Eberle had once again proven himself very well in the work at the Glyptothek and had also been trained in fresco painting by Cornelius , he was commissioned to work on the following work in the Munich Odeon Hall , the middle of the three colossal frescoes, Apollo among the shepherds , independently to make. The fresco The Elevation of Archduke Maximilian I to Elector on February 25, 1623 followed as one of the 16 historical paintings in the arcades of the royal residence in the Hofgarten .

As part of the commemoration of the 300th anniversary of Albrecht Dürer's death in Nuremberg in 1828, Eberle created one of the seven transparencies made for this purpose, which were installed in the pointed arched windows on the east side of the old Nuremberg town hall . After all, Eberle was still involved in Munich with the group around Cornelius, which the painter Moritz von Schwind had meanwhile also joined , in the ceiling work for the Michelangelo -Loge in the Alte Pinakothek , which was under construction . He also made several lithographs based on the drawings designed by Cornelius for Dante frescoes that were planned but not yet executed for the Casino Massimo in Rome . These then appeared in the art catalog of the Leipzig auction house CG Börner in 1831 with additional explanations by the church historian and art connoisseur Ignaz von Döllinger .

After the relationship between Cornelius and Crown Prince Ludwig had cooled down in the meantime and the group around him had gradually dissolved, Eberle moved in September 1829 together with the wife and daughter of Cornelius, who wanted to follow later, and the Swiss painter Emilie Linder to Italy. After stops in Venice and Florence , he joined the painter Friedrich Overbeck who worked there in Rome . But a melancholy, which was already becoming apparent in Munich and now increasing, burdened Eberle's creativity and work, who often despaired of his pedantic and meticulous demands and repeatedly destroyed the work of many weeks.

Cornelius' family soon moved on, but Emilie Linder stayed in Rome and was a valuable support for Eberle over the next two years. However, when she left Rome in 1831 and although the old childhood friend and philologist Ernst von Lasaulx , who at the same time was doing some research in Rome, moved into his apartment for a few months, Eberle's depression intensified. During this difficult time only a few lithographs , drawings and paintings were made, mostly with religious motifs. Finally, Eberle died suddenly and unexpectedly on April 15, 1832 at the age of only 28 years and was then buried in the " cimetero acattolico ", the Protestant cemetery in Rome , on the western side of the Cestius pyramid .

In numerous expressions of condolences and obituaries from former companions and art critics, Eberle's services were particularly honored. The art critic Friedrich Pecht found an excellent characteristic of Eberle's work when, according to Fey's publication, he wrote: “... that the frescoes do not come into their own with some beauties of the composition because of the colorful and unconcerned painting, but that the cartoons and those with the pen drawn compositions are to be regarded as really valuable works, which rightly aroused great expectations, but which Eberle was never able to fulfill due to the lack of any technique in painting and due to his complete ignorance of the laws of color. “Eberle was well aware of this dichotomy, which is why he seems to have broken both because of it and, among other things, because of his impatient expectations and his striving for perfection.

A portrait or possibly a self-portrait can be found in the “ Histoire de l'art moderne Allemagne ” by Atanazy Raczyński .

Works (selection)

  • Apollo among the shepherds , middle of the three frescoes in the Munich Odeon Hall, 1827
  • The elevation of Archduke Maximilian I to electoral prince on February 25, 1623 , part of the 16 historical frescoes in the arcades of the royal residence in Munich's Hofgarten, 1828
  • Albrecht Dürer and Raffael , shaking hands in front of the throne of art , the middle of the seven transparencies in the pointed arched windows on the east side of the old town hall in Nuremberg, 1828
  • Four scenes from the Wilhelm Tell saga , 1828
  • The King in Thule , oil on wood, o.A.
  • Outlines of Dante's Paradise / by Peter von Cornelius [in outline lith. v. Adam Eberle]. With explanatory texts by J. Doellinger, Boerner, Leipzig, 1831
  • Job mocked by his friends , pencil drawing, 1832 (Foundation by Emilie Linder for the Museum Basel)
  • Jesus calls two disciples , chalk drawing, 1832, (ditto)
  • Peter and Paul on their way to Rome , pencil drawing, 1832 (ditto)
  • The Israelites in Babylonian captivity , pencil washed on paper, 1832 (ditto)
  • Mourning Jerusalem , unfinished pencil drawing, 1832; completed by Josef Banz in 1840, in: History of Modern German Art , Vol. II, Atanazy Raczyński (Ed.) / FH vd Hagen (translation)

Literature and Sources

Individual evidence

  1. image on page 81 in Holger Schulten: The Wittelsbach cycle in the Hofgartenarkaden Munich
  2. ^ Shadow gallery Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum Aachen, see Adam Eberle