August Heitmüller

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Self-portrait , around 1928

August Heitmüller (born June 15, 1873 in Gümmer near Hanover ; † May 4, 1935 near Meran ) was a German painter and graphic artist and co-founder of the " Hanover Secession ". The cultural politics influential painter was known in the later capital of Lower Saxony in particular through his portraits of personalities from politics and culture.

Life

Portrait of a Girl , oil on cardboard, before 1911
Advertisement for the Association for Tourism with cautious advertising for Leibniz cakes , around 1910
Schoolgirl in Nenndorf (1911)

Heitmüller was born the son of a farmer and initially worked as a house painter . He studied at the School of Applied Arts in Hanover , from 1895 at the Academy of Arts in Munich with Franz von Stuck and Otto Seitz, and in Berlin with Lovis Corinth . Supported by patrons from Hanover, he was able to undertake study trips to France, Belgium, Holland, England and Spain. In the early days of his work he could be counted among the impressionists .

Before the First World War, Heitmüller worked in a studio in Gümmer, then in Bad Nenndorf. From 1908 August Heitmüller lived in Hanover. In 1917 he co-founded the Hanover Secession , together with Kurt Schwitters and others. After the First World War he developed into an expressionist . Heitmüller was friends in particular with Ernst Thoms and with Christof Spengemann , who described him as a "[...] revolutionary among the Hanoverian painters". In his work, influenced by the new objectivity , he concentrated on portrait painting. In the early 1920s, he became seriously ill and was increasingly dependent on care.

In 1921 the Kestnergesellschaft showed an exhibition with works by Heitmüller and works by his wife Leni Zimmermann-Heitmüller . In a later exhibition at the Kestnergesellschaft in 1933, works by August Waterbeck were also shown. August Heitmüller was a member of the German Association of Artists . Possibly as early as 1930, but certainly in 1932 - even before the seizure of power by the Nazis - was Heitmüller member of the Nazi party . After he had made portraits of Adolf Hitler , he was referred to in the social democratic newspaper Volkswille as “[...] court painter of the Third Reich ”. August Heitmüller died in 1935 near Meran.

Works (selection)

painting

  • Pair of friends. 1925
  • Portrait of a man at the piano
  • Portrait of Mr. Jochem
  • Portrait of Dr. Br.

Books

  • Hanoverian heads from administration, business, art and literature. 2 volumes. Verlag H. Osterwald, Hanover 1928. (August Heitmüller drew the heads. Wilhelm Metzig designed the entire equipment of the plant.)

Literature (selection)

  • Paul Erich Küppers: August Heitmüller . In: Die Kunst - monthly magazine for free and applied arts . 31st year. F. Bruckmann, Munich 1899, Hannoversche Kunst at the 84th Great Art Exhibition in Hanover, p. 355–364, here pp. 357–359 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive - With a short section on his wife Leni Zimmermann-Heitmüller on p. 361 and a picture of one of her still lifes on p. 363).
  • Heitmüller, August . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 16 : Hansen – Heubach . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1923.
  • Heitmüller, August . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 2 : E-J . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1955.
  • Franz Rudolf Zankl : August Heitmüller. Self-portrait, 1933, Kunstmuseum Hannover with the Sprengel Collection. In ders. (Ed.): Hannover Archive . Sheet P65 .
  • Ludwig Zerull ( editor , layout), Günter Barz, Michael Herling (photos): Hanoverian painter of the New Objectivity. Accompanying document to the (touring) exhibition of the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung with pictures from the collections of the Stadtsparkasse Hannover , the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung and the Sprengel Museum Hannover . Ed .: Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung. Self-published, Th. Schäfer Druckerei, Hanover 1991, passim
  • Ines Katenhusen : Art and Politics. Hanover's struggles with modernity in the Weimar Republic. At the same time, dissertation at the University of Hanover under the title Understanding a time is perhaps best gained from her art (= Hanoverian Studies. Series of publications by the Hanover City Archives. Volume 5). Hahn, Hannover 1998, ISBN 3-7752-4955-9 , p. 397 u. ö.
  • Cristian Fuhrmeister (Ed.): August Heitmüller. In: “The strongest expression of our day.” New objectivity in Hanover. December 9, 2001 - March 10, 2002, Sprengel-Museum Hannover. Exhibition catalog. Olms, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 2001, ISBN 3-487-11440-2 , p. 243.
  • Hugo Thielen : Heitmüller, August. In: Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 161 ( books.google.de ).
  • Hugo Thielen: Heitmüller, August. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 283.

Web links

Commons : August Heitmüller  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hugo Thielen : Heitmüller, August. In: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . P. 161 (excerpt, books.google.de ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Hugo Thielen: Heitmüller, August. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover . P. 283 (excerpt, books.google.de ).
  3. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Ordinary members of the German Association of Artists since it was founded in 1903 / Heitmüller, August ( memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on August 19, 2015).
personal data
SURNAME Heitmüller, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and graphic artist, co-founder of the Hanover Secession
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Gümmer near Hanover
DATE OF DEATH May 4, 1935
Place of death near Meran