Charles F. Foerster

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Charles F. Foerster (born July 11, 1883 in Berlin ; died December 22, 1943 there ) was an American-German art historian and art collector .

Life

Portrait of Ernst Oppler :
Charles F. Förster reading

Foerster grew up as the son of a wealthy American in Berlin-Wannsee and studied classical archeology and art history. However, he renounced a doctorate and preferred a free position to a permanent employment relationship. With the outbreak of World War I , he gave up his American nationality. He was entrusted with editing the miniatures for the “Exhibition of German Art from the Period from 1775–1875”, which took place in 1906 in the Berlin National Gallery. Here he met the collector Wolfgang von Dallwitz (1863–1928). In Tornow (Ostprignitz) he owned an extensive collection of porcelain from Berlin and Meißen. Through this encounter Foerster came into contact with the private collectors, the art trade and the auction industry for whom he subsequently worked. After the end of the war he was commissioned by the Crown Estate Administration to open the New Palace in Potsdam to the public and to bring the time of Frederick the Great again into focus. After studying old inventories, Foerster began to reverse changes.

Foerster wrote shorter essays, brief introductions, catalog articles, miscommunication, reviews or lexicon articles on protagonists of the Frederician Rococo. In 1926 and 1933 he dealt extensively with the work of the Prussian court painter Antoine Pesne for exhibitions . He also gave lectures at the Art History Society and was appointed to three councils of experts, that of the Kupferstichkabinett, the sculpture collection and the palace museum. In his private life, Foerster had built up an art collection so that his apartment looked like a museum of Prussian art from the 18th century. Marta Huth (1898–1984), the wife of his colleague Hans Huth (1892–1977), who had to emigrate in 1937 due to his Jewish origins, made a series of Berlin interiors. These were created between 1930 and 1934 in Foerster's apartment on Von-der-Heydt-Straße and on Herkulesufer 15. In 1938/39 he moved to Wichmannstraße 6. His collection of paintings, graphics, furniture, porcelain and books was One month before Foerster's death, on November 23, 1943, it was completely destroyed in a bomb attack.

Fonts (selection)

literature

  • Theodor Demmler : Charles F. Foerster, born on July 11, 1883, died on December 22, 1943. Words in his memory spoken in the Schlossmuseum in Berlin on January 9, 1944 . Berlin 1944, OCLC 252574683 (typescript, 16 sheets, Berlin State Library).
  • Guido Hinterkeuser: On the 70th anniversary of the death of the art historian Charles F. Foerster (July 11, 1883 - December 22, 1943) . In: Museum journal . tape 28 , no. 1 , 2014, p. 14–15 , doi : 10.11588 / artdok.00004522 ( archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de [PDF; 265 kB ]).

Web links

Commons : Charles F. Forrster  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charles F. Foerster: Antoine Pesne: 1683-1757. Exhibition of paintings owned by Berlin. Goldschmidt-Wallerstein Gallery November 21. - 19.12.1926 . Berlin 1926, OCLC 845805565 .
  2. ^ Charles F. Foerster: Antoine Pesne 1683–1757: Exhibition for the 250th birthday, organized by the administration of the State Palaces and Gardens in the historic living rooms of the Berlin Palace . Berlin 1933.
  3. ↑ Guido Hinterkeuser: On the 70th anniversary of the death of the art historian Charles F. Foerster (July 11, 1883 - December 22, 1943). 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Foerster, Charles F.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Foerster, CF
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American-German art historian and art collector
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1943
Place of death Berlin