Carl Kuntz (painter)

Self-portrait of the artist in his studio (1789)

Carl Kuntz (born July 29, 1770 in Mannheim , † September 8, 1830 in Karlsruhe ) was a German landscape painter and etcher .

life and work

Carl Kuntz attended the Mannheim drawing academy . Johann Jakob Rieger , a student of Ferdinand Kobell, taught him landscape painting based on the example of the Dutch of the 17th century. Although Carl Kuntz was spatially separated from the Kobells (Munich), he went through a similar artistic development as the " Munich landscape painters ".

In the years 1791/92 he traveled to Switzerland and Northern Italy. He acquired a thorough knowledge of printmaking, especially aquatint etching . At the same time, “plein-air” studies were carried out. After returning to his hometown, he consolidated his reputation as a graphic artist with the series “Schwetzinger Stiche” (1793). Kuntz found permanent employment with the Chalkographic Society in Dessau, which was founded in 1796 . There he was employed as a draftsman, but also made aquatint etchings himself. In 1804, after he had made unsuccessful attempts at the Baden court to save the Mannheim drawing academy from being dissolved, he was given a waiting allowance and the prospect of being appointed court painter . Around this time, a number of landscape paintings were created, mostly on behalf of the Baden court. Exact description of the area, subtleties and fragrant, light-flooded colors secure them an important position in the Baden vedute painting .

In 1806 wall paintings were created for the interior decoration of Bauschlott Palace near Pforzheim (Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum ). Taking into account the taste of the court, Kuntz painted Baden landscapes. In 1808, now a court painter, he moved to Karlsruhe , where he painted four Lake Constance landscapes for the Hochbergsche Palais. These two by three meter views show Lake Constance motifs at different times of the day, two of which are in Salem Castle . These commissions are based on a large number of nature studies. In 1812, Kuntz was chosen to give daily drawing lessons to the Grand Duchess Stephanie of Baden .

An animal picture copied by Kuntz after Paulus Potter , The Spring Morning (Mannheim, Städtische Kunsthalle ) caused an unusual sensation in 1815 because of its similarity to the original. From then on, court and money nobility ordered animal pictures from him. Kuntz increased these animal pieces, based on the Dutch tradition, to an extraordinary perfection. In 1818 he co-founded the Badischer Kunstverein , in 1829 Grand Duke Ludwig appointed him gallery director, but he was only able to hold this position for one year. Kuntz's pupils were his two sons Rudolf and Ludwig as well as Ernst Fries from Heidelberg .

Kuntz was a member of the Freemason Lodge Carl zur Eintracht in Mannheim.

Other sons besides the aforementioned painters were the Baden administrative lawyer Konrad Kuntz (1804–1881) and the Prussian Lieutenant General Gustav Kuntz (1807–1886).

Works (selection)

• Sleeping Shepherd Boy on the Alm , 1792 (Kiel, Pomeranian Foundation)
• Shepherd and herd at the fountain , 1801 (Kassel, State Art Collection)
• Country people on the bank of a mountain lake , 1791; Cows fighting on a farm , 1815; Shepherd attacked by a bull , 1815 (all three: Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung )
• View from the Ugly , 1816 (Baden-Baden, City History Collections)
• Landscape with Cattle , 1821; Black Forest Landscape , 1924 (both: Berlin, State Museums)
• Animal studies in oil and etchings in the Reiss-Engelhorn museums in Mannheim
• other works in private ownership and probably in Leipzig, Dresden and Moscow
• Estate: Kunsthalle Mannheim

Aquatint leaves

• The pissing cow , after Paulus Potter
• Shepherd family with resting cattle , after JG Roos
• Hagar's repudiation , after Claude Lorrain
• The Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen
• Views of Mannheim, Baden-Baden, Heidelberg and Heidelberg Castle

Numerous drawings, watercolors and etchings are in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe .

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Kuntz, C. . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 13th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1865, p. 390 ( digital copy ).
• Alfred Woltmann : Karl Kuntz. In: Baden biographies . 1875, part 1, pp. 487/488 ( digitized version ).
• Kuntz, Karl . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, p. 397.
• J. Beringer: Palatinate art and culture in the 18th century. 1907.
• Fritz Hirsch : 100 years of building and looking. 1928.
• Gustav Jacob: Kuntz, Carl . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 22 : Krügner – Leitch . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1928, p. 114-116 .
• A. von Schneider: Karl Kuntz. In: My homeland. 29, 1942.
• A. von Schneider: Baden painting of the 19th century. 1968.
• Lieselotte Benedict: The Baden court painter Carl Kuntz 1770–1830. Dissertation, University of Karlsruhe 1980.
• Lieselotte Benedict:  Kuntz, Carl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 305 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Carl Kuntz  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files