Carl Urban Keller

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Uznaberg Castle in Switzerland (1818)
Keller's travel vehicle in Italy (1810)

Carl Urban Keller (born October 26, 1772 in Marbach am Neckar ; † March 15, 1844 in Stuttgart ) was a lawyer with a doctorate in Tübingen and a lawyer practicing in Stuttgart, who painted and etched on his trips around Stuttgart and on his numerous trips He was a hobbyist and co-founded the Württemberg Art Association in 1827 .

origin

Little is known about Keller's origins. His father was probably Ernst Urban Keller, deacon of Marbach, his grandfather was probably the brickworks owner Urban Keller, who, as Grüninger's "councilor", campaigned vehemently for the continuation of the privileges of his Oberamtsstadt , threatened by Ludwigsburg , and was therefore suspended from 1723 to 1725 by the Obervogt. In Grüningen, today Markgröningen , there was also a namesake, Karl Urban Keller, who was born on November 14th, 1767 and was already mistaken for the said painter. His parents were Gottlieb Friedrich Keller, “Mayor and trader all here”, and the pastor's daughter Regina Catherina Klein from Affalterbach (⚭ 1757). The Marbach deacon Ernst Urban Keller was the godfather of the Grüninger Karl Urban.

Artist life

Keller was brought up as an "oppidaner" (local student) at the Hohen Karlsschule in Stuttgart and completed a law degree in Tübingen with a doctorate. He presumably also took lessons from the landscape painter Adolf Friedrich Harper (1725–1806). From 1798 at the latest, Keller drew views of his Swabian homeland, in particular of the state capital Stuttgart and the upper administrative city of Markgröningen, which owes him the only views of the city gates that were demolished a little later and a panorama sketch.

  • View of " Gröningen " from the southwest (before 1800)

  • Ostertor in Markgröningen before demolition (around 1800)

  • Esslinger Tor, later demolished (around 1800)

  • Lower Gate, which was later demolished (around 1800)

  • Upper gate around 1800 still with front gate and drawbridge

Since Keller never married, he was able to indulge in his hobby without any family obligations and undertake a number of extended trips, which he documented in drawings and sometimes in writing. He spent his first stay in Rome from 1802 to 1803 together with the Stuttgart painter Gottlieb Schick . Leaves from the Cervaro grottoes have been preserved from his second stay in Rome in 1810 . Keller made his architecture and landscape representations as watercolor as well as in drypoint, aquatint or etching style in the spirit of Romanticism .

Numerous works by Keller can be found in the graphic collections of the Württemberg State Library and the State Gallery in Stuttgart . These included a series of adhesive tapes with washed drawings that he made on his travels through Germany, Austria, Switzerland and especially Italy between 1802 and 1825. A self-contained group within the original 20 anthologies are 23 previously unpublished vedutas that Keller drew in 1822 during a trip from Roverto to Sirmione on Lake Garda .

Keller took part in the Stuttgart art exhibition in 1824 and was particularly involved in the founding of the Württemberg Art Association in Stuttgart in 1827 , which he then headed as an honorary curator .

reception

With his documentation of his first trip to Italy, with his documentation of his first trip to Italy, which was probably a little enthusiastically commented, Keller got himself a slap in the Allgemeine Literaturzeitung in 1806 : “With so little knowledge of the great peculiarities of Italy and so little taste in judgment and presentation, few would think of even traveling, but not to serve up their extremely everyday and uncleaned remarks to the public. "

Keller's traditional city and architecture views are partly of high documentary value for urban history research.

  • Ruins of the Frauenkirche near Unterriexingen (around 1800)

  • Lichtenstein Castle (1801) before the romantic renovation

  • Cannstatt from the foot of the Kahlenstein (1801)

  • Hauptstätter Tor in Stuttgart before demolition (1818)

  • Seeltor in Stuttgart before demolition (1818)

Publications of Keller

  • Stuttgart with its nearby area. According to nature as a panorama in outline and depicted in twelve individual etched sheets . Stuttgart 1804.
  • Beauties of nature, drawn on a trip through Italy in 1802 and 1803 . Stuttgart: Löflund 1805.
  • New, as yet completely unknown way of imitating ink in copper without any detergent. Stuttgart: Löflund, 1815.

literature

  • Fritz Emslander, Petra Maisak (ed.): Journey into underground Italy: Grottoes and caves in Goethe's time (exhibition catalog). Karlsruhe 2002.
  • Werner Fleischhauer : Keller, Carl Urban . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 20 : Kaufmann – Knilling . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1927, p. 96 .
  • Ernst Kapff : The Stuttgart painter Karl Urban Keller. A picture of life from the Biedermeier period. In: Schwäbischer Merkur, 1927, No. 356.
  • Max Schefold : Old Views from Württemberg. Stuttgart 1957. Volume II (catalog part).
  • Max Schefold: On the Swiss travel sketches by Karl Urban Keller. In: Journal for Swiss Archeology and Art History. 27, 1970, pp. 137-153.
  • Andreas Stolzenberg: Views from Lake Garda. The travel sketches by Carl Urban Keller from Stuttgart from 1822. Leipzig 1994 ( landesmuseum.at PDF; 8.5 MB).

Web links

Commons : Carl Urban Keller  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source: German National Library
  2. ^ Ludwig Friedrich Heyd : History of the former Oberamts-Stadt Markgröningen with special regard to the general history of Württemberg. Stuttgart 1829, facsimile edition for the Heyd anniversary, Markgröningen 1992, p. 128 ff.
    Gerhard Liebler, Markgröningen - Entertaining encounters with the city and its history. Edited by Working Group on Historical Research and Monument Preservation Markgröningen, Markgröningen 2011, p. 90 ff.
  3. ↑ It is possible that the stylistically different charcoal sketches of the Grüninger Gates and the Unterriexinger Frauenkirche actually come from Karl Urban Keller from Markgröningen . The author's inscription on these sketches in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart could also provide a corresponding hint , as this was subsequently changed from “KU Keller” to “Carl Urban Keller” (for example, see Wikimedia Commons ).
  4. ↑ Source: Graphic Collection of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart or Photo Archive Photo Marburg
  5. ↑ The WLB presents some works as digital copies.
  6. ^ Andreas Stolzenberg: Views from Lake Garda. The travel sketches of Carl Urban Keller from Stuttgart from 1822. In: Publications of the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum. 74, Leipzig 1994, pp. 85-111 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  7. ^ Beauties of nature, drawn on a trip through Italy in 1802 and 1803 , with 20 etched sheets, Stuttgart: Löflund 1805.
  8. ↑ See comment in Allgemeine Literaturzeitung from 1806, No. 124 ( books.google.de )
  9. ^ In the graphic collection of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart: Inv. No. A 32292 to A 32302, A 32304, A 32305, A 32309.
personal data
SURNAME Keller, Carl Urban
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Keller, Karl Urban
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Doctorate in law, painter and art lover
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1772
PLACE OF BIRTH Marbach am Neckar
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1844
Place of death Stuttgart