Albert Engstfeld

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Albert Engstfeld in Bruges in 1915
Old Bruges (before 1914)
Market scene (before 1914)
Church interior St. Jacques in Bruges (before 1914)

Albert Engstfeld (born August 25, 1876 in Düsseldorf , † April 20, 1956 in Langenfeld-Richrath , Rhineland ) was a German painter who was associated with the Düsseldorf school .

life and work

Albert Engstfeld was born in Düsseldorf as the fourth of seven children to Albert and Anna Barbara (née Schöneberg). After attending elementary school and the upper secondary school on Fürstenwall, he began studying at the Royal Prussian Art Academy in Düsseldorf with Peter Janssen and Arthur Kampf in 1892 . In 1896 he successfully completed his studies. As a member of the academic association “Laetitia”, an influential student association at the Düsseldorf Art Academy at the turn of the century, Engstfeld did not strive for a professorship, but dedicated himself to his own work.

In 1903 Engstfeld went to the Netherlands, where he lived in Sluis with his former classmate Johann Georg Dreydorff (1873–1935) until 1906 . Participation in exhibitions in Düsseldorf, Berlin and Cologne show that the contact with the homeland did not break off. From 1908 Engstfeld lived in Bruges for seven years , where he became a member of the “Cercle Artistique Bruges”.

His artistic work reached its maturity phase during this time. His church interiors, such as the work “Church interior St. Jacques in Bruges”, as well as his still lifes, are in the tradition of Dutch painting of the 17th century. The landscapes and cityscapes also take up Dutch and Belgian motifs, but are more indebted to realism and late impressionism in terms of color and style.

Because of the danger of being interned as an "enemy foreigner" in West Flanders, which was not yet occupied by Germany, Engstfeld returned to Germany via Holland in 1915. He was assigned to the reserve, but was apparently not used in the war. In 1919 he married the innkeeper daughter Maria Hartmann. The couple settled in Hilden / Rhineland. It had a daughter in common.

The artistic production of Engstfeld stalled from the 1920s, he often reproduced his own picture inventions from the pre-war period. In 1920 and 1921 he took part in several exhibitions in the Rhineland. Apparently he could only sell a few paintings. In the economically difficult times, Engstfeld's relatives paid for the maintenance of his family. In addition, the manufacturer Alfred Friedrich Flender (1876–1939) , President of the Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia , made regular purchases. Flender's son later took over his role as Engstfeld's patron.

In the course of the 1930s the painter withdrew more and more. Until his death, only a few exhibition participations and commissioned works are documented. During an evacuation stay in Elfershausen in Lower Franconia in 1942/43 he created a number of landscapes of the area. His admission to the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts is justified in an article in the local press, among other things with the creation of a portrait of the founder of the order Maria Theresia Bonzel for the Catholic Theresa School in Hilden in 1931. Engstfeld's correspondence with the former federal brother of Laetitia EJ Friederici, however, shows an inner distance to the political situation.

For the painter's 75th birthday, the city of Hilden organized a small sales exhibition in August 1951. From the beginning of the 1950s the painter became increasingly depressed. He burned letters, sketches and photos. His daughter managed to save some documents, including the artist's notebook with notes on exhibitions and sales.

Albert Engstfeld died on April 20, 1956 in St. Martinus Hospital, Langenfeld-Richrath. The burial took place in the main cemetery in Hilden. In November of the same year, his hometown organized as part of the “2. Niederbergische Kunstausstellung “a small retrospective of the painter's works.

Exhibitions (selection)

  • Solo exhibition in Wuppertal-Barmen, Kunstverein, 1904
  • International art exhibition Düsseldorf, 1904
  • German art exhibition, Cologne 1906
  • Lenobel / Cologne, 1906, 1907
  • German national art exhibition, Düsseldorf 1907
  • "Bruges - ses Peintres", Bruges 1908
  • Large art exhibition in Düsseldorf , 1909
  • Kunstverein Wuppertal-Barmen, 1910
  • Great Berlin Art Exhibition , Berlin, 1903, 1905, 1910, 1913
  • International art exhibition Dresden 1908
  • International watercolor exhibition Dresden 1911
  • Great Düsseldorf art exhibition, 1911
  • Large art exhibition Dresden, 1912
  • Exhibition of the Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia , Düsseldorf, 1919
  • Jury-free art exhibition Düsseldorf, 1930
  • “Association of Düsseldorfer Künstler 1904” in the Düsseldorf Kunsthalle , 1932 and 1933
  • “Joint work of art and artists” of the Mayen district; Final exhibition in the Düsseldorf Kunsthalle, 1936

Memberships

Works in public collections

Literature (selection)

  • Meves: From the workshops of the Free Association of Düsseldorf Artists. Düsseldorf, undated, approx. 1905–1910, illustration of the work: “Procession in a village street”, Malkasten library, Düsseldorf.
  • Engstfeld, Albert . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 10 : Dubolon – Erlwein . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1914, p. 555 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • Emmanuel Bénézit : Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays. 3rd edition, Volume 4, 1976, p. 167.
  • Sabine Schroyen: Image sources on the history of the artists' association Malkasten in Düsseldorf. Artists and their works in the collections (= Archivhefte / Rheinland / Archiv- und Museumsamt. 34), Düsseldorf 2001, p. #.
  • Engstfeld, Albert . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 34, Saur, Munich a. a. 2002, ISBN 3-598-22774-4 , p. 113 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Catalog for the exhibition of the Academic Association "Laetitia", 1914 (on the occasion of its 35th anniversary celebration), Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, June 21 to July 30, 1914.
  2. ↑ Artistry flourishing in silence. Painter Albert Engstfeld turned seventy-five today. In: Hildener Zeitung. August 25, 1951.
  3. ↑ 5 × x30 Düsseldorf Art Scene - 150 Years of the Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia 1829–1979. Düsseldorf 1979, no p.
  4. ↑ Listing of the artist in the Engstfeld archive engstfeld-archiv.eu .
  5. ↑ Rheinische Post, local edition. Hilden from August 25, 1951
  6. ^ Hildener Zeitung. November 11, 1965.
  7. ↑ archive.org
  8. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Catalog p. 27, exhibition number 280, Sächsische Landesbibliothek H.Sax.G 657 vf.
  10. ↑ Catalog No. 47.
  11. ↑ The memberships are listed in the artist's notebook; digitized in the Engstfeld archive: engstfeld-archiv.eu
  12. ^ Undated newspaper clipping for his 60th birthday in 1936 and a letter of congratulations from the Reich Chamber on his 65th birthday in 1941 in the estate; www.engstfeld-archiv.eu
  13. ↑ Telfair Museum of Art (ed.): Telfair Museum of Art: Collection Highlights . University of Georgia Press, 2005, ISBN 0-933075-04-9 , pp. 309 ( books.google.de ).
personal data
SURNAME Engstfeld, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1956
Place of death Langenfeld-Richrath , Rhineland