Eduard Magnus

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Eduard Magnus, self-portrait (1827)

Leopold Eduard Samuel Magnus (born January 7, 1799 in Berlin ; † August 8, 1872 there ) was a German painter and at his time one of the busiest and most celebrated portrait painters in Berlin. Thanks to his high reputation and the outstanding position of the Magnus family, he was one of the influential members of various art commissions. His pictures are part of the collections National Gallery Berlin, Hermitage (Saint Petersburg) , National Portrait Gallery (London) , Thorvaldsen Museum , Copenhagen. However, most of it is privately owned. Several pictures were lost at the end of the Second World War and in the turmoil of the post-war years .

Origin and family

The Magnus family was originally of Jewish faith. The father, the wealthy businessman Immanuel Meyer Magnus from Schwedt / Oder, converted with his sons to Protestantism in 1807 and acquired citizenship in 1809. In the same year he founded the Magnus banking house in Berlin under his new baptismal name Johann Matthias Magnus , which was one of the predecessor institutions of Deutsche Bank . In the upbringing and training of his sons, it was essential for the father that they follow their talents and inclinations. The two oldest sons took over the banking business. Eduard Magnus embarked on a career as an artist. The younger and most famous brother was the physicist Heinrich Gustav Magnus . Another brother became a farmer, another doctor. The mother Louise Marianne (born as Merle Fraenkel), who formed the center of the family and ran an open house, conveyed the generous way of life that continued in the charity of the sons. The family's residence for decades was Behrenstrasse 46 in Berlin's banking district . The artist's apartment and first studio were also on the upper floor.

Life

Eduard Magnus was born on January 7, 1799. After attending the Friedrichswerder high school , he tried his hand at studying architecture at the Berlin Building Academy . At the same time, he studied in the nude class at the art academy . However, his further development is self-taught. The artist's colleague Jakob Schlesinger , professor and restorer at the Royal Museums in Berlin, was a long-time artistic advisor .

Eduard Magnus: The homecoming of the Palikaren
Eduard Magnus, pencil drawing by Adolf Menzel (1841)
Magnus' grave in Berlin

Magnus went on study trips to France, Italy, Spain and Egypt. In Rome, where he lived for over eight years (1827–1829, 1830–1834, 1839/1840, 1845–1847, 1850/1851, 1856/1857, 1866/1867) and a member of the Ponte Molle Society and the German Art Association he had his own studio. Around 1830 he lived there in the Palazzo Fiano on the Corso . Drawings from this period are part of the holdings of the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome. After returning to Berlin, he became a member of the academy in 1837 and a professor in 1844. At the ripe old age of 67, the Art Academy appointed him to the Senate, where Magnus played a key role in expert decisions.

Eduard Magnus was the only one of the six Magnus sons to remain unmarried. He lovingly took care of nephews and nieces and of his mother, who outlived her husband by almost twenty years. He continued the hospitality she cultivated as a bachelor on a smaller scale. In later years Magnus also dealt with theoretical art issues. In lectures and books, for example, he discussed the construction, furnishings and lighting suitable for art museums and exhibition spaces. He was an interested contemporary who also took a public position on issues of the day.

He later took up residence and studio in Anhaltstrasse. 8 (today Anhalter Str.). A deep friendship developed between him and the ancient historian Gustav Adolf Schöll , who later became the Grand Ducal librarian in Weimar. Part of the correspondence has been handed down. Magnus supported him all his life and gave him 20,000 thalers in his will, which, according to the Deutsche Bundesbank, would have had purchasing power of over half a million euros in 2009.

In 1862 Magnus was diagnosed with cataracts. After several operations, he finally suffered a stroke and died on August 8, 1872. He found his final resting place in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof , the burial place of the Magnus family, next to his brother Heinrich Gustav Magnus , who had died two years before him.

plant

Even his early work reveals a joy in painting. There is a strong sense of proportion, color and shape. They are mostly genre pictures with a Mediterranean theme. The picture Homecoming of the Palikaren deserves special mention , which was created in Paris and attracted great attention at the exhibition of the Berlin Academy in 1836. In 2011 the picture graced the cover of the catalog for the 150th anniversary of the Nationalgalerie . "Palikaren" was the name of the Greek and Albanian mercenaries in their national dress in the Turkish army , from which the later Greek army was formed during the Greek revolution after 1821. Magnus' further work is determined by portraiture, with which he has handed down an image of upper-class society and intellectual and artistic Berlin. He did this - as with all painters of his time - in dealing with the newly emerging medium of photography. While portrait photography took over background design and draperies from painting and then reduced it in a clichéd manner, the painters went back to old traditions and largely dispensed with accessories.

Among the portraits of important contemporaries are the many pictures that he made of colleagues, composers and performing artists - some even several times. These include portraits of Friedrich Curschmann , Wilhelm Taubert , Livia Frege , Adolf Menzel , Richard Lauchert , Bertel Thorvaldsen , Ludwig Schwanthaler and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy . Widely related to the latter, he made a number of portraits for members of the composer's family.

Magnus' best-known pictures include the portrait of Jenny Lind , which has been shown in eight special exhibitions throughout Europe, most recently in Stockholm in 1998. Another portrait - that of the singer Henriette Sontag - received an award at the Paris World's Fair in 1855. Both pictures were exhibited in Antwerp as early as 1852 and declared “the best in the salon”. The viewer has the impression of light-heartedness, which can be explained with Magnus' origins and his material independence. It seems that he painted for pleasure and in that sense he also portrayed family and friends.

honors and awards

Portraits (selection)

  • Jenny Lind, 1846

  • Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, 1846

  • Mathilde Countess zu Lynar, around 1837

  • Aglaya E. Senden, 1839

  • Wilhelm Taubert, 1862

  • Ernestine von Wildenbruch, 1848

  • Louis Coblitz , 1845

Fonts

  • The polychromy from the artistic point of view . Strauss, Berlin 1872.
  • About the furnishing and lighting of rooms for the installation of paintings and sculptures . Ernst & Korn, Berlin 1864.

literature

  • David Blankenstein: Magnus, Leopold Eduard (Samuel) . In: France Nerlich, Bénédicte Savoy (ed.): Paris apprenticeship years. A lexicon for training German painters in the French capital . Volume 1: 1793–1843, De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-029057-8 , pp. 187-190.
  • Lionel von Donop :  Magnus, Eduard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, pp. 75-77.
  • Sibylle Ehringhaus, Roland Kanz (ed.): Berlin art industry, Berlin reality. Letters from the painter Eduard Magnus from 1840 to 1872 (=  Atlas. Bonn contributions to art history . New series, volume 7 ). Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-412-20460-0 .
  • Ludwig glasses: Eduard Magnus. A contribution to 19th century Berlin portrait painting . Arani VG, Berlin 1963.
  • Irmgard Wirth : Berlin painting in the 19th century . Siedler Verlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-572-10011-9 , p. 129.

Web links

Commons : Eduard Magnus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Magnus, 1) Eduard . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 13, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1908, p.  99 .
  2. ^ Bonn Contributions to Art History, New Series, Volume 7: Berlin Art Industry, Berlin Reality, p. 1.
  3. ^ Friedrich Noack : The Germanness in Rome since the end of the Middle Ages . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1927, Volume 2, p. 376
  4. ^ Sibylle Ehringhaus, Roland Kanz (ed.): Berlin art business, Berlin reality. Letters from the painter Eduard Magnus from 1840 to 1872 .
  5. ^ Image index of art and architecture
  6. ^ Berliner Kunstblatt 3 , 1852, 309.
personal data
SURNAME Magnus, Eduard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Magnus, Leopold Eduard Samuel (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1799
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1872
Place of death Berlin