Bruno Matthaei

Carl Bruno Matthaei (born September 6, 1869 in Eilenburg ; † July 17, 1947 ibid.) Was a German painter .

Life

He was the son of the last Eilenburg tin caster Carl Theodor Matthaei († 1901) and of Auguste Maria geb. Lantzsch.

Matthaei gained his first artistic experience painting pewter figures in his father's workshop. between 1890 and 1901 he lived in various cities, including Munich , where he presumably trained as a painter. Returning to his hometown after his father's death, he set up a studio in his father's house and worked as a freelance painter. According to the clientele from Eilenburg and the surrounding area, he primarily painted cityscapes, village and landscape pictures, but also historical pictures or, in the First World War, the horses of the officers going to war. In order to survive, Matthaei worked in the 1920s, the Great Depression , partly as a pattern designer in a Eilenburger calico. To support him, the city council commissioned him in 1921 to design six emergency notes . Matthaei's travels took him to the Lüneburg Heath and also to the Black Forest , of which he also painted pictures.

In April 1945, Matthaei was 76 years old, his house with the studio was completely destroyed when Eilenburg was bombarded, as was most of the Eilenburg old town. A large part of the pictures he had made in recent years was lost. This loss broke the old and sick artist. Losing his zest for life, he could hardly get out of bed, where he still spent his time painting.

Matthaei painted in different techniques and executed his pictures in a wide variety of formats. His painting style remained very conventional throughout his life. He ignored new emerging art movements or only allowed them to flow marginally into his works. He made the majority of his pictures in his studio, based on his own sketches or photographs.

In 2007 an exhibition about Matthaei was shown in Eilenburg.

literature

• Andreas Flegel: Almost forgotten! Bruno Matthaei - The Eilenburger Heimatmaler , in: Yearbook for Eilenburg and Surroundings 2009, pp. 64–68
• Hans-Joachim Böttcher : Matthaei, Carl Bruno , in: Important historical personalities of the Düben Heath, AMF - No. 237, 2012, pp. 64–65