August Beck (painter)

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August Beck (* 1823 in Basel ; † July 23, 1872 in Thun ; resident in Basel) was a Swiss painter , etcher , woodcut artist and illustrator at the Düsseldorf School of Painting .

Life

August Beck received his artistic training from 1844 to 1847 at the Düsseldorf Art Academy , where a. a. Karl Ferdinand Sohn and Rudolf Wiegmann were his teachers. He was friends with Arnold Böcklin , who was also studying in Düsseldorf . He was one of the founding members of the Düsseldorf artists' association Malkasten . From the 1860s he lived in Dresden .

Beck worked mainly as a battle painter and especially as a draftsman of military scenes for illustrated newspapers, such as the Düsseldorfer monthly books and especially the Leipziger Illustrirten Zeitung, and in the 1870s for the Suisse illustrée published in Bern . In 1859 he provided the Leipziger Zeitung with pictures of the Italian War . In 1864, along with Otto Clemens Fikentscher , Emil Hünten , Wilhelm Camphausen and Adolph Northen, he was part of the contingent of Düsseldorf artists who were sent to the theater of war as reporters during the German-Danish War for Schleswig-Holstein , and whose work was subsequently shown in exhibitions in Düsseldorf and nationwide. He also worked as a reporter during the German War in 1866 and the Franco-German War in 1870/1871. He recorded the impressions gained as a “Schlachtenbummler” ( Friedrich Schaarschmidt ) in drawings and converted them into paintings and illustrations. The latter appeared as reproductions in the technique of wood engraving in many of the popular magazines. He also addressed historical war events such as the Battle of Wagram in the Fifth Coalition War in 1809.

Works (selection)

Austrians in the battle of Wagram
  • 1850: Swiss Militair Album [uniforms]. Düsseldorf lithographed Art institution
  • 1859: From the headquarters of the Austrian Army during the Italian War 1859. Drawings
  • 1860: The Cologne Zoological Garden .
  • 1863: Cheering calendar to commemorate the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig from October 16-19, 1813. With illustrations based on original drawings by August Beck, C. and E. Kirchhoff and Caspar Scheuren . Weber, Leipzig 1863. (digitized version) .
  • 1864: From the headquarters of the Federal Execution Corps in Holstein and from those of the allied Austrian Prussia. Operations corps in Schleswig and Denmark 1864. Also as a chronicle of the German-Danish war (with Ludwig Burger and Friedrich Kaiser ), drawings
  • 1864: Illustrated war reports from Schleswig-Holstein: Commemorative sheets to the German-Danish War of 1864. Weber, Leipzig 1864 ( digitized BSB )
  • 1866: From the headquarters of the Crown Prince of Saxony from the 1866 war.
  • 1869: Rescue of casualties in front of the " Segen-Gottes-Schacht " near Potschappel ( Freital ) after the catastrophe of August 2nd, 1869 . In: Leipziger Illustrirte Zeitung of August 21, 1869
  • 1870: Dresden - Saxon Grenadiers. For the 200th anniversary of the 100th and 101st grenadier regiments on April 30, 1870. Wood engraving, printed on the reverse, 12 partial views from the regimental history, approx. 40 × 50 cm
  • 1870: Franco-German War 1870/71, from the headquarters of the Crown Prince of Saxony. also in association with other artists as an illustrated chronicle of the Franco-German war
  • 1874: Loose leaves on the history of the Royal Saxon Army. 41 plates, drawn on wood, Meinhold, Dresden 1874, posthumously

literature

Web links

Commons : August Beck  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See nos. 624–627 in the finding aid 212.01.04 Student lists of the Düsseldorf Art Academy , website in the archive.nrw.de portal ( North Rhine-Westphalia State Archive )
  2. ↑ Artists of the Düsseldorf School of Painting (selection, status: November 2016) - Foundation Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf (SMPK)
  3. ↑ Inventory list of paint boxes Düsseldorf
  4. ↑ Beck, A. In: Address and business book of the royal capital and residence city of Dresden , 1870, Section I, p. 16. “Artist, Bischofsweg 32. I”.
  5. ^ Friedrich Schaarschmidt : On the history of Düsseldorf art, especially in the XIX. Century . Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia, Düsseldorf 1902, p. 231
  6. ↑ Image of the Cologne City Museum in the MuseumsKöln.de portal (image from week 29 - July 19 to 25, 2010)
  7. ↑ Illustration of the Dresden State Art Collections (SKD online)
  8. ↑ Image at Galerie Saxonia.com
personal data
SURNAME Beck, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter, etcher, woodcut artist and illustrator from the Düsseldorf School of Painting
DATE OF BIRTH 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH July 23, 1872
Place of death Tuna