Carl Wilhelm Kolbe the Elder

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Carl Wilhelm Kolbe the Elder Ä .: Forest with gnarled oak (satyr abducts nymph) , around 1800

Carl Wilhelm Kolbe (also Karl Wilhelm K. ) (born November 20, 1757 ( November 9, 1759 [date of baptism]) in Berlin , † January 13, 1835 in Dessau ) was a German painter, graphic artist and writer.

Life

Kolbe came as the son of the gold ticker and wallpaper maker Christian Wilhelm Kolbe and his wife Anne, nee. Rolls into the world in Berlin. There he attended a French high school. After graduating from school, he was initially a brief forest clerk for the Count of Schulenburg-Kehnert . In 1780 he went to Dessau as a private teacher for the Prince of Anhalt, but at the same time got a job as a teacher of French at the Philanthropin Dessau . It was here that Kolbe began to work as a writer. In 1782 he returned to Berlin and began to paint and draw under the influence of his relative Daniel Chodowiecki . After a failed attempt to study law in Halle (1782 to 1784), Kolbe returned to Dessau as a teacher at the Philanthropin, this time for French and art.

In 1793 Kolbe finally decided on a career as an artist and moved back to Berlin, where he became a student of Asmus Carstens , Johann Wilhelm Meil (1733–1805) and Daniel Chodowiecki at the academy. On November 26, 1795 he was accepted as a full member of the Academy . At the beginning of this year he was called by Leopold III. Friedrich Franz von Anhalt-Dessau followed to Dessau to a newly founded drawing academy, which however did not materialize. Instead he worked as a French and drawing teacher at the secondary school (later Friedrichsgymnasium) in Dessau from 1796. At the same time his first etching portfolios with depictions of landscapes appeared. He was appointed court engraver in 1798 and was, among other things, drawing teacher to Duke Leopold Friedrich . From 1805 to 1808, with the prince's permission, he was a guest of the Salomon Gessner family in Zurich for three years and made etchings based on his paintings.

In addition to his artistic activity, he wrote writings in the spirit of a linguistic-structural-aesthetic linguistic purism and thus acquired a reputation as a “language cleaner”. For these services to the German language he was awarded the diploma of a doctorate in philosophy.

Kolbe was unable to follow up on the success of his first landscape depictions and etchings after Gessner and had difficulties in finding paying publishers for his later works. His autobiography was published in 1825, and in 1829 he retired. Kolbe died in Dessau in 1835.

The painter Karl Wilhelm Kolbe the Younger is his nephew. Kolbe's artistic estate fell to his long-time student Mohs, whose heirs still own around half of Kolbe's plates and drawings.

plant

Carl Wilhelm Kolbe the Elder Ä .: The cow in the reeds

Even in his first time in Dessau, Kolbe mainly drew depictions of landscapes and plants from the Dessau area. Due to the particularly characteristic etchings of oaks , it was later given the nickname "Eichen-Kolbe".

He became particularly well known for his "herb leaves", 28 etched views of swamp vegetation, which stand out due to their extraordinary perspective and the seemingly surreal composition of the picture.

Kolbe's literary work is largely forgotten today.

Works

Collections of etchings
  • Leaves mostly with landscape content in five deliveries, 1796–1800
  • Series of six small idyllic landscapes , around 1800
  • Series of four landscapes in Waterloo's manner , 1802/1803
  • Collection des Tableaux en Gouache et des Dessins de Salomon Gessner , 25 graphics, 1806–1811
  • New collection of etched sheets in six deliveries, around 1815–1828
Fonts
  • Exposé de l'état actuel de l'établissement d'éducation fondé à Dessau. Leipzig 1785.
  • About the richness of words of the German and French languages ​​and both of their disposition to poetry. 2 volumes. Reclam, Leipzig 1806-1809. 2nd edition 1818-1820.
  • About word mix, language purity and language purification. Appendix to the text "About verbosity [...]". Berlin 1809. 2nd edition 1812. 3rd edition 1823.
  • One more word about linguistic purity against Mr. K. Reinhart. Berlin 1815.
  • Illumination of some publicly pronounced judgments about and against the purity of language. Dessau 1818.
  • My curriculum vitae and my work in the field of language and art. Reimer, Berlin 1825.

literature

Web links

Commons : Carl Wilhelm Kolbe the Elder  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b General German Real Encyclopedia for the educated classes. Conversations lexicon in fifteen volumes. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1853. Here: Volume 9, p. 103.
personal data
SURNAME Kolbe, Carl Wilhelm the Elder
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kolbe, Karl Wilhelm; Oak flask
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, graphic artist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH baptized November 9, 1759
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1835
Place of death Dessau