Carl Bersch

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Carl Bersch (born May 3, 1834 in Zweibrücken , † May 1, 1914 in Baltimore ) was a German-American painter. He became known as an eyewitness to the assassination attempt on Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, which he captured in a painting.

Life

Lincoln Borne by Loving Hands

Carl Bersch was born as the son of the cabinet maker Jakob Bernhard Bersch and his wife Carolina Friederike nee Heintz. His talent for drawing was already evident during his school days at the grammar school in Zweibrücken . However, his wish to study at the Munich Art Academy was not fulfilled for the time being. Instead, at the insistence of his father, he began studying mining at the local polytechnic . In addition to his studies, he took evening classes at the art academy and finally his father agreed to study art.

In 1854 he entered the Munich Academy of Fine Arts as a student. After completing his training in 1859, Bersch returned to Zweibrücken to work as a portrait painter . A year later he emigrated to the United States . After his arrival he spent a short time in Memphis and Baltimore, where he could already make a living from portraiture, after which he worked in Washington, DC in the studio of photographer and war correspondent Mathew B. Brady .

On the evening of April 14, 1865, Carl Bersch was on a balcony across from Ford's Theater in Washington DC, sketching scenes on the street with charcoal. He witnessed how the fatally wounded Abraham Lincoln was brought to Petersen's House next to Bersch's domicile on a stretcher after the assassination attempt. He sketched this scene in great detail and a few days later made an oil painting of it, which he named Lincoln Borne by Loving Hands .

After the end of the Civil War , he returned to Baltimore in 1865. In the same year he married Angelika Bode, the daughter of a German doctor, with whom he had a daughter. Carl Bersch received American citizenship at the end of 1866. Portrait painting remained his specialty, besides Bersch painted court scenes and worked as an inventor. In the years 1906–1907 he toured Europe again, after his return he spent the rest of his life in Baltimore, where he suffered a stroke on May 1, 1914 and died.

Works (selection)

Portrait of Cardinal James Gibbons
  • Lincoln Borne by Loving Hands (Ford's Theater, Washington, DC), 1865, 1.20 mx 1.80 m, oil on canvas.
  • Portrait of Bismark ( Walters Art Museum , Baltimore), 1860, oil on cardboard
  • Portrait of James Cardinal Gibbons (Maryland Historical Society), 1890, oil on canvas

literature

  • Dietmar Grieser: From Zweibrücken into the world , city administration Zweibrücken, 2002, ISBN 3-00-010337-6 , pp. 153–158

Web links

Commons : Carl Bersch  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carl Bersch. In: Rhineland-Palatinate personal database. Retrieved December 26, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Matriculation entry of the Munich Art Academy
  3. ^ A b Andrea Dittgen: Zweibrücker Carl Bersch painted Lincoln's murder in 1865 . In: Die Rheinpfalz from February 2, 2013
  4. ↑ a b Art Price: biography of Carl BERSCH. Retrieved December 26, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Lincoln's Last Night. In: Washington Star. April 16, 1932. Retrieved December 26, 2018 . Quote from the eyewitness report by Carl Bersch
personal data
SURNAME Bersch, Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American painter
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1834
PLACE OF BIRTH Zweibrücken
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1914
Place of death Baltimore