Eduard Gelpke

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Carl Wilhelm Eduard Gelpke (born January 18, 1847 in Braunschweig , † December 13, 1923 there ) was a German painter .

life and work

Gelpke's watercolor showing, among other things, the house where he was born, Ruhfäutchenplatz 6 (right corner house).
Commercial building at Wendenstrasse 12, painted in 1894.
Gelpke's autograph from 1899 (postcard to the Dortmund card dealer Fried Salmen)

Eduard Gelpke was born as the son of the border guard Carl Elias Heinrich Emil Gelpke and his wife Johanna Louise Caroline Friedrieke, nee. Bookmann, born. At the time the family lived in the city center at Ruhfäutchenplatz 6. Eduard Gelpke was married and had three children.

After initially working as a master locksmith , the autodidact turned to naive painting from the 1870s . He is known for a large number of very detailed watercolors of houses and streets in downtown Braunschweig , focusing on those that were to be demolished in the course of urban renewal at the time .

Painting gradually became Gelpke's actual profession. From 1902 he called himself a "painter". Although the Städtisches Museum Braunschweig bought some of his works as early as the 1880s and 1890s on the initiative of Gelpke's patron , the architect and university professor Constantin Uhde , and several series of postcards showed them, the interest in Gelpke's work during his lifetime was so little that he was neither recognized as an artist nor had a secure livelihood. So are z. B. only a few private purchases of his works are known. Only today are his pictures of old houses and street scenes, which are no longer available, especially after the destruction of the Second World War , as important sources of urban history .

Artistic quality

Gelpke's work is characterized by a large, almost documentary wealth of detail on the one hand, while at the same time limited artistic ability on the other hand, which is reflected in the naivety of the portrayed (especially with people and perspectives ). Gelpke's emotional standpoint and the feeling of the impending loss of what is depicted are clearly recognizable. Gelpke documented the places of his childhood that were sacrificed to urban planning shortly afterwards . His z. The partly excessive subjectivity and idealization of the buildings, backyards and alleys shown make his work today a document of the times.

literature

  • Britta Berg: Eduard Gelpke , In: Camerer, Garzmann, Schuegraf, Pingel (Ed.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon , Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag, Braunschweig 1992, ISBN 3-926701-14-5 , pp. 83f
  • Anette Boldt-Stülzebach: Eduard Gelpke , In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (Hrsg.): Braunschweigisches biographisches Lexikon. 19th and 20th centuries. Hahn, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , pp. 204f
  • Gerd Spies : Braunschweig - naive. Views by Eduard Gelpke (1847–1923) , In: Braunschweiger Werkstücke , Series B, Volume 8, the whole series Volume 67, Waisenhaus-Druckerei GmbH, Braunschweig 1988

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Gerd Spies: Braunschweig - naive. Views by Eduard Gelpke (1847–1923) , p. 7
  2. ↑ Gerd Spies: Braunschweig - naive. Views by Eduard Gelpke (1847–1923) , p. 71
  3. ↑ Anette Boldt-Stülzebach: Eduard Gelpke , In: Jarck, Scheel (Ed.): Braunschweigisches biographisches Lexikon. 19th and 20th centuries. , P. 204
  4. ↑ Gelpke's autograph letter of April 11, 1909, quoted in: Gerd Spies: Braunschweig - naiv. Views by Eduard Gelpke (1847–1923) , p. 7
  5. ↑ a b Anette Boldt-Stülzebach: Eduard Gelpke , In: Jarck, Scheel (Ed.): Braunschweigisches biographisches Lexikon. 19th and 20th centuries. , P. 205
  6. ↑ Britta Berg: Eduard Gelpke , In: Camerer, Garzmann, Schuegraf, Pingel (Ed.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon , p. 84

Web links

Commons : Eduard Gelpke  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Gelpke, Eduard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gelpke, Carl Wilhelm Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1923
Place of death Braunschweig