August Chauvin

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August Adolf Chauvin (born October 25, 1810 in Liège ; † May 29, 1884 ibid) was a Belgian history and genre painter of the Romantic era and long-time director of the Liège Academy of Art.

Life

The son of an administrative officer, who had started a job in Aachen in 1816 , attended the trade school there after graduating from high school, where he was soon employed as an assistant teacher. During this time he joined Alfred Rethel in the Aachen drawing school under Johann Baptist Joseph Bastiné . Chauvin initially did not pursue his artistic career any further, but rather began studying architecture a little later and, for financial reasons, worked as a master mason for about four years. However, this work did not fill him in the long run and he strived again to continue his artistic career.

In 1831 he moved to Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow at the Düsseldorf Art Academy , who was particularly impressed by his talent. Due to constant lack of money, Chauvin was forced to take on an additional position as a private drawing teacher for the naturalist Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied , after he returned to Germany from his North American expedition and his previous artistic expedition member and illustrator of his publications, Karl Bodmer, emigrated to Paris in 1835 was. Chauvin completed this daily task until 1841, although he continued to be active in Düsseldorf. He joined the Düsseldorf painting school led by Schadow and made friends with the painter Christian Köhler , at whose instigation the group around Schadow went on a study trip to Belgium, which Chauvin also joined. Inspired by the works of Old Flemish masters, Chauvin made a number of masterful works in the period that followed, still in the spirit of the Schadow school with a Nazarene artistic orientation.

Although Chauvin felt extremely at home in Düsseldorf, in 1841 he accepted a call to his hometown of Liège, since he, who was meanwhile married to a woman from Koblenz and had been plagued by financial worries for years, ensured the social existence of a teaching position at the Liège Art Academy and an uncertain life as an artist in Düsseldorf preferred. In 1856 the Academy took him over as its interim director and promoted him two years later to director. Chauvin held this position until his retirement in 1880, when he was made honorary director. Chauvin was considered a warm-hearted and popular teacher who, through his artistic and pedagogical skills, played a key role in the development of his students and Belgian art.

For his many services, Chauvin received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Leopold in 1861 and was accepted as a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts of Belgium .

After his death on May 29, 1884, a large-scale funeral ceremony took place in Liège, attended by the official representatives of the Academy, delegations from state and military authorities and numerous contemporaries and companions of Chauvin.

The art critic Ernst Förster noted about him, according to J. Fey in a section about this artist in his publication, that Chauvin had endeavored to make aspects of German art, especially the Düsseldorf School, known in Belgium, and at the same time Prussian virtues with French ones To combine liveliness and lightness. In doing so, he succeeded in paying particular attention to the living conditions of a society shaped by the steel industry and mining at his academy. Chauvin also attached great importance to scientifically based teaching, which should be useful for both future artists and artisans interested in art.

Works (selection)

  • Farewell to Tobias
  • The falcon boy in medieval costume
  • Prayer of moses
  • Rest on the flight into Egypt
  • The treecreeper
  • Hagar in the desert
  • Funeral of St. Nothburga
  • Sermon on the Mount , 1842
  • The last meeting of the mayors Beeckman and Laruelle in the town hall of Liège (1631) , 1847, picture subject with national romantic significance for the Kingdom of Belgium, historical picture in the style and in the succession of Carl Friedrich Lessing
  • Flight into Egypt , 1849
  • Self-Portrait , 1850
  • Adoration of the Magi
  • The three Marys at the grave
  • Conversion of Saul
  • The holy bishop Lambert von Lüttich accuses Pippin von Herstal of an immoral life during a banquet
  • Judas Iscariot
  • Portrait of Mayor Jamme (1830–1838) , 1878

Literature and Sources

Web links

Commons : Auguste Chauvin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wend von Kalnein : Die Düsseldorfer Malerschule , Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1979, ISBN 3-8053-0409-9 , p. 283 (catalog no. 46)
personal data
SURNAME Chauvin, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chauvin, August Adolf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian history and genre painter
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Liege
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1884
Place of death Liege