Albert von Keller

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Self-portrait (possibly)
Albert Keller
Grave of Albert Ritter Keller on the old southern cemetery in Munich location
Albert von Keller: Lily Disgeistes , around 1895
Portrait of the artist's wife

Albert von Keller (born April 27, 1844 in Gais , † July 14, 1920 in Munich ) was a German painter of Swiss origin.

Life

Keller came from one of the oldest patrician families in Zurich, the Stauffischen Keller vom Steinbock, also called zum Schlüssel or Keller von Schwamendingen (raised to knighthood in the 9th century, second patent from the ibex in 1487). His ancestor, Johannes Keller zum Schlüssel, was one of the founders of the Republic of Zurich and its first consul (mayor). His uncle was the legal scholar Friedrich Ludwig von Keller (1799-1860), who from 1847 worked as a professor in Berlin. He and his wife Ida geb. Lavater were also Albert's godparents. Grandfather was Felix Keller vom Steinbock, called "the rich cellar of Goldbach". At the age of three Albert came with his mother after stays in Zurich and Aufseß (July 1844) to Bayreuth (March 1847), where he already attended elementary school and the first grade of the grammar school and received piano lessons. At the end of May / beginning of June 1854 the company moved again, now to Munich, where Albert entered the 1st class of the Munich Maximiliansgymnasium shortly before the end of the school year . In addition to the compulsory language sequence at the grammar school - Latin, Greek and French, he attended optional Italian lessons and also continued his musical education. In 1863 he successfully graduated from high school. From the winter semester of 1863/64 he studied law at Munich University and became a member of the Corps Isaria .

From 1865, on the advice of Ludwig von Hagn and Arthur Georg von Ramberg , he devoted himself entirely to painting, but was only temporarily enrolled at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts . From 1867 to 1872 Keller worked in a studio in Sophienstrasse, near the Old Botanical Garden in Munich, in 1872 (/ to 1884) he moved to the rear building at Schwanthalerstrasse 25 and - after a stay in Paris in 1882/83 in the rear building at Kaulbachstrasse 33, which became the property of Kaulbach-Villa belonged. From 1911 he used a second studio at Theresienstraße 148.

In 1878 he married Irene Freiin von Eichthal (born August 31, 1858 - † January 6, 1907), a great-granddaughter of the royal Bavarian court banker Aaron Elias Seligmann, Baron von Eichthal. Irene von Eichthal is immortalized in around forty portraits. After the first son of the marriage died shortly after birth in 1880, the son Balthasar was born in 1884, and Franz von Lenbach was the godfather of his baptism. He died in 1906.

Albert von Keller was appointed professor in 1887 and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown in 1897 with the right to bear the title of nobility. He was a founding member of the Munich artists' association Allotria , a founding member of the Munich Secession (of which he was deputy president from 1904 to 1920) and of the Free Association of the XXIV, as well as a board member of the German Association of Artists . Before the first exhibition at the DKB in 1904, Keller was elected by the Munich secessionists as Vice President under Hugo Freiherr von Habermann and was then represented in the Royal Exhibition Building on Königsplatz in room 10 with six paintings, including three by Madeleine Guipet, the so-called dream dancer .

tomb

The grave of Albert von Keller and his wife Irene is on the old southern cemetery in Munich (New Arkadenplatz 23 at cemetery 27) location .

plant

In addition to his academic studies, Keller had orientated himself on the work of Italian masters, especially Veronese. In his painting he dealt with the work of Hans Makart , Arnold Böcklin and Franz von Lenbach , among others . After a certain closeness to academic “salon painting”, he came to an expressive style through contact with impressionism , but above all with the painting of his lifelong friend Hugo von Habermann . He painted interiors and societies, portraits and nudes in a large style and format. After he became a member of the Psychological Society in 1866, he also dealt with mystical-occult and religious topics such as B. the raising of the daughter of Jairus , on which he worked from 1877 to 1886. From 1869, Keller was a co-exhibitor at the Royal Glass Palace and the Munich Art Association, and from 1873 a member of the “Allotria” artists' association. After a visit to the seaside resort in Wyk auf Föhr, a first masterpiece was created in 1872. He achieved his artistic breakthrough in 1873 with the painting Chopin ( Neue Pinakothek , Munich), for which he received a medal in Vienna.

The representation of women pervades the entire oeuvre of Albert von Keller. The spectrum ranges from nudes to conventional commissioned portraits, including the Russian Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna . Especially in his late work, the portrayal of sophisticated women in magnificent surroundings with lascivious poses almost formed a subject of its own. His artfully furnished Munich domicile served as a background motif.

In February 1905, the Münchner Kunstverein presented a collective exhibition of his work; In 1908 the Munich Secession honored Albert von Keller with a retrospective of around 150 paintings. In 1914, when the Neue Pinakothek in Munich was reorganized, twenty paintings by the artist were included in the permanent exhibition.

His pictures were published in numerous publications during his lifetime, including the magazine Jugend . To express his appreciation for his new Bavarian homeland, he wrote to Albert Ritter von Keller , which is unusual for a Swiss patrician .

Portrait

  • Leo Samberger: Portrait of Albert von Keller ; Illustration: Die Kunst I, 1900, p. 166.

Honors

  • 1873: Art exhibition at the Vienna World Exhibition (medal)
  • 1883: Munich art exhibition (medal)
  • 1886: Berlin art exhibition (medal)
  • 1887: title of royal professor
  • 1889: 1st class medal at the 4th International Art Exhibition in Munich. Commander's Cross Isabella the Catholic of Spain
  • 1889 and 1900: Paris Art Exhibition (Paris Salon): Knight's Cross of the Legion of Honor and bronze medal
  • 1890: Order of Merit from St. Michael 4th class
  • 1891: London, German national summer exhibition: 1st class medal
  • 1891: Berlin: 2nd gold medal; Honorary member of the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts
  • 1896: Order of Merit 3rd Class by Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria
  • 1897: Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown ; from 1898: Authorization to use the title of nobility
  • 1902: Officer's Cross of the Legion of Honor (Paris)
  • 1910: Russian Order of Saint Stanislaus
  • Honorary member of the Munich Academy of Fine Arts

literature

  • Georg Fuchs: Albert Keller , in: Allgemeine Kunst-Chronik, 1894, pp. 2-10 (with photographic portrait and 13 illustrations).
  • HE von Berlepsch (d. I. Hans-Eduard von Berlepsch-Valendas): Albert Keller , in: Die Kunst für Alle, Vol. 12, 1897, pp. 193-201; with 14 illustrations and 2 photos
  • Albert von Keller: Twenty photogravures based on works by his hand , in: Die Kunst I, 1899/1900, p. 167 (ill.).
  • Fritz von Ostini : Albert von Keller on his 60th birthday. In: Die Kunst für alle , Volume 20, No. 15 (May 1, 1905), pp. 345–353.
  • Josef Popp: Albert von Keller , in: The Art of Our Time, Vol. 19 II, 1908, pp. 137–168 (58 illustrations, 2 photos).
  • Carl Brun (Ed.): Schweizer Künstler-Lexikon, Vol. 2, Frauenfeld 1908.
  • Hans Rosenhagen : Albert v. Basement, cellar. With an art insert and eleven text illustrations. In: Reclams Universum: Moderne Illustrierte Wochenschrift 27.2 (1911), pp. 705–711.
  • Hans Rosenhagen: Albert von Keller , artist monograph 104, Velhagen & Klasing, Leipzig 1912 (133 figs.).
  • B. Rüttenauer: Albert von Keller as a woman painter , in: Westermanns Monatshefte, Heft 7, pp. 61–77, Leipzig 1913 (22 ills.).
  • Hans Rosenhagen: Memories of Albert von Keller , in: Der Kunstwanderer, Berlin 1921, pp. 201–203.
  • Albert von Keller as a painter psychologist and metaphysicist , in: Psychische Studien, Volume 48, April / May 1921, pp. 193–208; with 11 illustrations and photos by Dr. Early Schrenck-Notzing.
  • Historisch-Biographisches Lexikon der Schweiz, Vol. 4, Neuenburg 1927, p. 472: Friedrich Ludwig Keller.
  • Hermann Uhde-Bernays: The Munich landscape painting in the 19th century. Part 2: 1850-1900. Munich 1927. Newly published by Eberhard Ruhmer, pp. 69, 102, 138, 183, 186, 209, 227, 242, 252, 253 (Fig .: Musical entertainment , around 1871), 254 (Fig .: Chopin , 1873) , 255 (Fig .: Raising the daughter of Jairus , completed in 1886), 256, 257, 260, 300.
  • Oskar A. Müller: Albert von Keller. Thiemig, Munich 1981 (extensive biography and documentation of the artistic work; with numerous illustrations).
  • Oskar A. Müller: Albert von Keller 1844–1920. The ambience of a painter. Thiemig, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-485-04164-5 .
  • Oskar A. Müller: Albert von Keller. His drawings. Nymphenburger, Munich 1988.
  • Siegfried Weiß : Under the spell of women - Albert von Keller (exhib. Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren) , in: Weltkunst, H. 10, May 15, 1997, p. 1053.
  • Kunsthaus Zürich (ed.): Albert von Keller. Salons, séances, secession . Texts by Gian Casper Bott , contribution by Nico Kirchberger. Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-7774-9015-1 .
  • Rudolf Reiser: Old houses, big names: Stiebner, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-8307-1049-3 .
  • Oskar A. Müller:  Keller, Albert Ritter von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 428 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Siegfried Weiß : Art career aspiration. Painter, graphic artist, sculptor. Former students of the Maximiliansgymnasium in Munich from 1849 to 1918 . Allitera Verlag, Munich 2012. ISBN 978-3-86906-475-8 , pp. 30, 76, 89-97 (fig.), 115, 143, 153, 204, 301.

Web links

Commons : Albert von Keller  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Albert Keller, still without the title of nobility, was one of eight children of Karoline Keller, currently 37 years old and divorced from her husband Martin Bodmer (1802–1880) for two years. As is customary in Switzerland, she had taken on her maiden name again for herself and her son Albert. Oskar A. Müller (1981, p. 256) suspects that it was not Martin but his brother Heinrich Bodmer (1796–1875), who lived in the same house, that Albert's father was
  2. ^ Annual report on the K. Maximilians-Gymnasium in Munich for the school year 1862/63
  3. ↑ Register book 1841–1884: 02225 Albert Keller [1]
  4. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Ordinary members of the German Association of Artists since it was founded in 1903 / Keller, Albert von ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed December 27, 2015)
  5. ^ Exhibition catalog X. Exhibition of the Munich Secession: The German Association of Artists (in connection with an exhibition of exquisite products of the arts in the craft) , Verlaganstalt F. Bruckmann, Munich 1904 (p. 24)
  6. ↑ cf. Old southern cemetery in Munich, Franz Schiermeier - Florian Scheungraber - overview plan of the tombs - ISBN 978-3-9811425-6-3
  7. ↑ Harald Olbrich (Ed.): Lexicon of Art. Architecture, fine arts, applied arts, industrial design, art theory. Vol. III: Greg – Konv , EA Seemann Verlag, Leipzig 2004. ISBN 3-86502-084-4 (p. 703)
  8. ↑ Seebad Wyk auf Föhr, oil on canvas 43.5 x 72 cm, Galerie Liberec (Reichenberg) see: Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer, Maler auf Föhr, Amrum and the Halligen, Heide 2012, p. 71f with ill.
personal data
SURNAME Keller, Albert von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter of Swiss origin
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Gais
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1920
Place of death Munich