Christian Xeller
Johann Christian Xeller (born August 18, 1784 in Biberach an der Riss ; † June 23, 1872 in Berlin ) was a German painter and restorer .
Christian Xeller was the son of a white tanner and ran his father's craft until he was 18. However, following his inclination to painting, he turned his back on this livelihood and attended the Düsseldorf Academy from 1804 to 1806 . The acquaintance with Peter von Cornelius , with whom Xeller had a lifelong friendship, was to become a trend- setter. Equipped with a travel grant, he accompanied his friend to Rome in the autumn of 1811, where he was accepted into the St. Luke League and converted to the Catholic faith in 1812. But when there was no more money from home, he had to return to Germany at the beginning of 1813. During the following four years he stayed in succession in Biberach, Munich, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Aschaffenburg before settling in Heidelberg for several years in 1817 .
In Heidelberg, Xeller restored paintings for the Boisserée brothers , from whose collection he also drew and etched some works. He also worked as a portrait painter and gave lessons; one of his students was the landscape painter Karl Rottmann , another Georg Philipp Schmitt . Heidelberg's surroundings and the exchange with the local artists inspired Xeller to do various landscape drawings. Some of them were created on a trip to the Rhine with friends in the autumn of 1818.
In his artistic work, Christian Xeller increasingly deviated from depictions of landscapes as well as from the religious and historical images of earlier times and increasingly limited himself to portraying and copying old masters. This development may have prompted him to accept an invitation to Berlin in 1825 to restore paintings for the Berlin Gemäldegalerie under Jakob Schlesinger's direction. His work as a restorer was very well received in Berlin and in October 1830 he got a permanent job with an annual salary of 500 Thalers. After Schlesinger's death in 1855, he was in charge of the restoration work, and in 1857 he was given the title of professor.
At the age of 80, Xeller made a very happy marriage with Wilhelmine Ponath, the 56-year-old daughter of his long-time landlady.
literature
- August Wintterlin: Xeller, Christian . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 44, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, p. 580 f.
- Andrea Tietze: Rottmann, Carl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , pp. 144 f. ( Digitized version ). (mentioned there)
- Xeller, Christian . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 36 : Wilhelmy-Zyzywi . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1947, p. 342 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Christian Xeller in the catalog of the German National Library
- Biography (PDF file; 1.65 MB)
- Estate in the Bavarian State Library
Individual evidence
- ^ Friedrich Noack : The Germanness in Rome since the end of the Middle Ages . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1927, Volume 2, p. 659
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Xeller, Christian |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Xeller, Johann Christian (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter and restorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 18, 1784 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Biberach an der Riss |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 23, 1872 |
| Place of death | Berlin |