Adolf Seel

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Adolf Seel , photo by Arnold Overbeck , Gebr. G. & A. Overbeck in Düsseldorf
Monastery interior in Andernach , probably 1860s
In a harem from the time of the Khalifa , book illustration from Georg Ebers ' work Egypt in pictures and words , published in the journal Die Gartenlaube , 1878
In the Alhambra , 1886, Museum Kunstpalast
Inner courtyard of the Alhambra , 1892

Adolf Wolfgang Seel (born March 1, 1829 in Wiesbaden ; † February 14, 1907 in Dillenburg ) was a 19th-century Wiesbaden artist and is considered an outstanding architectural painter of the Düsseldorf School .

Life

Seel attended the academy in Düsseldorf from 1843 to 1848/1849 . There were Rudolf Wiegmann and especially Karl Ferdinand Sohn his teachers. He was friends with Ludwig Knaus , who was also from Wiesbaden , and Wilhelm Busch . During his studies in Düsseldorf, around 1845–1848, Anselm Feuerbach , with whom he was also known , portrayed him . He then continued his education in Paris and in Italy (Venice) in 1864 and 1865. In 1870 and 1871 he traveled to Spain, Portugal and the north coast of Africa and in 1873 and 1874 the Orient (Palestine and Egypt).

Seel lived mostly in Düsseldorf and was a founding member of the artists' association Malkasten there from 1848 to 1907 . In 1869 he was one of the signatories of a "Declaration in matters of the Art Academy Düsseldorf", in which a critical stance against the Academy Director Hermann Altgelt was publicly expressed and the claim that "idealistic painting" had a priority was denied. With the Viennese architect and the painter Bernhard Fiedler from Trieste , he organized a “historical exhibition of the Islamic Orient”, which took place in the Austrian Museum in 1876 . In Georg Ebers ' two-volume work, Egypt in Pictures and Words , published from 1878 onwards , Seel was represented with several wood engravings. The architectural painter Hermann Baumeister was his student in 1891/1892 .

Above all, Seel gained a reputation as a genre and architectural painter, initially through monastery and church interiors. His architectural pieces, especially the atmospheric representations of Arab and Moorish buildings, with which he caused a sensation from the mid-1870s and influenced the reception of his contemporaries about the Orient, are of masterful perspective, lighting and coloring and usually provided with narrative figural accessories. These works can be assigned to the current of orientalism . With the painting Slave Market in Cairo (1895), an image with photographic accuracy, he entered the field of the erotic genre . In addition to his genre-like architectural painting, he created landscapes (vedute) and portraits, some in watercolor.

Works (selection)

Among the older works particularly stand out:

  • Prayers in the Church (1852)
  • Interior of a Byzantine Church (1862)
  • Motif from San Marco in Venice
  • The cloister of Halberstadt Cathedral in winter (main picture)

Among the later works should be emphasized:

  • Baptistery in San Marco
  • Lion Court of the Alhambra
  • Arabian Court in Cairo (1876, National Gallery Berlin )
  • The Egyptian Harem (1878)
  • The Favorite (1883)
  • In the Alhambra (1886, Museum Kunstpalast )
  • Inner courtyard of the Alhambra (1892)
  • Slave market in Cairo (1895, bought in 1896 by the Nationalgalerie Berlin, probably on the instructions of Kaiser Wilhelm II. )

Awards

In 1869, Seel received the Prussian Order of the Crown, IV class. In 1876 he was awarded the Archduke Carl Ludwig Medal and the Great Golden Medal of the City of Vienna, and in 1878 the Small Golden Medal in Berlin. In 1887 he received the award diploma from the Dresden watercolorists. He was also an honorary member of the Société royale belge des aquarellistes .

literature

Web links

Commons : Adolf Seel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wend von Kalnein : The Düsseldorf School of Painting . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1979, ISBN 3-8053-0409-9 , p. 218 f. (Catalog No. 203)
  2. ^ Adolf Rosenberg : History of modern art . Grunow, Leipzig 1889, Volume 3, p. 314
  3. ↑ Finding aid 212.01.04 Student lists of the Art Academy Düsseldorf , website in the portal archive.nrw.de ( Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen )
  4. ^ Wilhelm Busch, 1832-1908 . Wilhelm Busch Museum, Lower Saxony State Museum Hanover, Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1982, ISBN 978-3-7861-1354-6 , Volume 1, p. 36
  5. ^ The painter Adolf Seel, around 1845–1848 , website in the portal staatsgalerie.de ( Staatsgalerie Stuttgart )
  6. ^ Theodor von Frimmel : sheets for painting . Volume 3 (1907), p. 178
  7. ^ Katharina Bott : The Schadow album of the Düsseldorf academy students from 1851 . Hanau 2009, ISBN 978-3-937774-59-6 , p. 15 (footnote 90)
  8. ↑ Inventory list , website in the malkasten.org portal
  9. ^ Rheinische Zeitung , issue No. 157 of July 4, 1869; see. Wolfgang Hütt : The Düsseldorf School of Painting 1819–1869 . VEB EA Seemann Buch- und Kunstverlag, Leipzig 1984, pp. 273, 316 (footnote 324)
  10. ^ New Foreigners Sheet , Issue No. 36 of February 6, 1876 ( Google Books )
  11. ^ Georg Ebers : Egypt in pictures and words . Hallberger, 2 volumes, Stuttgart and Leipzig 1878–1880
  12. ^ Moritz Blanckarts : The Art Academy in Düsseldorf and the Düsseldorf School . In: Our time. German review of the present. Monthly for the conversation lexicon . New series, fifth year, second half, FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1869, p. 54 ( Google Books )
  13. ^ Véronique Porra, Gregor Wedekind: Orient. For the (de) construction of a phantasm . transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2017, ISBN 978-3-8376-3502-7 , p. 57 ( Google Books )
  14. ^ Arabischer Hof in Cairo , description in the portal nat.museum-digital.de ( Alte Nationalgalerie )
  15. ^ Karin Rhein: German Orientmalerei in the second half of the 19th century. Development and characteristics . Freie Universität Berlin, dissertation 2003, Tenea Verlag für Medien, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86504-035-7 , pp. 133, 201 ( Google Books )
  16. ↑ Slave market in Cairo , description in the portal nat.museum-digital.de (Alte Nationalgalerie)
  17. ↑ Across land and sea . Issue 42, July 1869, p. 695 ( Google Books )
personal data
SURNAME Seel, Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Seel, Adolf Wolfgang (baptismal name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1829
PLACE OF BIRTH Wiesbaden
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1907
Place of death Dillenburg