Dismar sword
Dismar Degen (* before 1700; † January 28, 1753 in Potsdam ) was a court painter to Friedrich Wilhelm I , King in Prussia.
Life
Degen's exact year of birth is uncertain, but he was born in Holland before 1700 . His known creative period spans the years 1714 to 1751. Until 1730 he was still with Baron Georg Hartmann v. Erffa , General Feldzeugmeister of the Franconian District , worked in Niederlind and with Lothar Franz von Schönborn , Prince-Bishop of Bamberg , in Pommersfelden .
Degen got to know the soldier king in 1730 when he was on a diplomatic trip with Crown Prince Friedrich II through southern Germany and had a short stay at Pommersfelden Castle . Friedrich Wilhelm I ordered some pictures from Degen, which resulted in negotiations about his move to Potsdam. Degen was a mediocre painter and met Fridrich Wilhelm I, who at the same time adjusted his art policy and now also appointed artists from abroad, drawing primarily on Dutch art, which he considered exemplary. In the spring of 1731 Degen moved to Potsdam and became a court painter at the Prussian court . Degen was supposed to fill a gap at the Prussian court that had arisen when the court painter Paul Karl Leygebe left in 1730. He had created under life-size equestrian portraits of the king and naive decorative murals.
After taking office in 1713, the Prussian king ordered the court art sector to take massive austerity measures, which abruptly stifled the arts and crafts, which had flourished under his father Friedrich I. Art had to be useful and cheap because of royal inclinations. Overall, Prussia sank back into provincial poverty in the field of painting. Degen preferred to paint pictures that deal with the useful activities of his king in a simple and realistic style. The king, who commissioned artistic works, was primarily interested in military topics, depictions of hunting and portraits of the royal family and his soldiers. Portraits, primarily of officers, and the reproduction of hunting events were the most important tasks that the German court painters Friedrich Wilhelm Weidemann , Georg Lisiewski , Johann Christof Merck , Johann Harper and Dismar Degen , who were employed at the Prussian court, often only performed routine work.
In addition to city and landscape pictures, the artist mainly painted battle pictures. He had to copy scenes from Jan van Huchtenburgh's War of the Spanish Succession and, according to the king's instructions, make the Prussian troops visible in battle.
His work is considered naive, but reliable in the reproduction of details. What is striking about his works are the sometimes grotesque misproportions of individual picture elements compared to their real size. Sometimes the proportions of animal and human figures in his works are not correct. He did not succeed in fully reproducing urban spaces either. He sometimes did not depict buildings in a proportionally realistic manner, but rather distorted them (e.g. the depiction of the roundabout). At the time he was active, these painting techniques were already known and widely used. A small-format equestrian portrait of the king known in several copies appears downright comical due to the inner contradiction between dignity and awkwardness. The artist also painted from templates.
He died on January 28, 1753 in Potsdam, where he had lived in the Dutch Quarter , which at the time was an artists' colony.
Works
Numerous views of the city and buildings of Berlin and its surroundings have been preserved by Dismar Degen. A number of unsigned images are attributed to him. The (hunting) paintings in the Stern Jagdschloss that have been preserved are attributed to Dismar Degen.
In 1740 Degen repeated at least two of the tapestries from an eight-part series of tapestries entitled “Glohrworthiest Actions” by the craftsman Pierre I Mercier from 1695, which showed the conquests of Stettin , Stralsund , Wolgast, Anklam and Rügen as well as the battles of Warsaw and Fehrbellin depicting the victories of the Great Elector in the battles of Warsaw and Fehrbellin, as a painting. While the painting in Warsaw was lost, the painting by Fehrbellin was preserved.
- “The Battle of Thrush, 1745”, oil on canvas, 63.5 × 109 cm Berlin, Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, Charlottenburg Palace
- “Battle of Turin, 1706” (after Jan van Huchtenburgh ) oil on canvas 74 × 102 cm Potsdam, Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, lnv. No. GK l 50332.
- “Battle of Fehrbellin”, oil on canvas, Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, inv. GK I 50334.
- "Friedrich Wilhelm I on horseback", Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg Inv. No. GK I 30033.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ulrich Reinisch: The image of the enlightened, ordered city and the urban planning of the Prussian building bureaucracy in the 18th century in the cityscape and monument preservation, construction and reception of images of the city , p. 52f, edited by Sigrid Brandt and Hans-Rudolf Meier, Weimar / Salzburg 2008
- ↑ Georg Troescher: Art and artist walks in Central Europe, 800-1800 : Vol. French and Dutch art and artists in the art of Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland, p. 344
- ↑ Friedrich Beck, Julius H. Schoeps (Ed.): The Soldier King. Friedrich Wilhelm I. in his time. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 2003, p. 227
- ↑ Friedrich Beck, Julius H. Schoeps (Ed.): The Soldier King. Friedrich Wilhelm I. in his time. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 2003, p. 223
- ^ Reclam's art guide: Berlin, art monuments and museums. Reclam, Stuttgart 1977, p. 25
- ↑ Gerd Bartoschek: The Royal Galleries in Sanssouci, Seemann Verlag, 1994, p. 94
- ^ Helmut Börsch-Supan : Artists' walks to Berlin before Schinkel and afterwards , 2001, p. 96 ISBN 3422063285
- ↑ Friedrich Beck, Julius H. Schoeps (Ed.): The Soldier King. Friedrich Wilhelm I. in his time. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 2003, p. 227
- ↑ Death register of the Catholic community in Potsdam
- ^ Birgit Kletzin: Strangers in Brandenburg. Of Huguenots, socialist contract workers and right-wing enemy. 2003, ISBN 382586331X , p. 84.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sword, Dismar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1700 |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 28, 1753 |
| Place of death | Potsdam |