Eduard von Grützner
Eduard Theodor Grützner , since 1916 Ritter von Grützner (born May 26, 1846 in Groß-Karlowitz near Neisse , Silesia , † April 2, 1925 in Munich ) was a German genre painter .
Life
School years
Eduard Grützner was born in 1846 as the seventh and youngest child of a not exactly wealthy farming family in Großkarlowitz near Neisse. The local pastor, Fischer, often visited his parents' house, as Eduard's father was a church mayor. He recognized Edward's talent and inclination for painting early on. Even as a guardian boy he drew on everything that fell into his hands. The manager of a count's country estate from the neighborhood got him paper and was happy when the boy, in addition to the countless animal and human representations, drew a villager with his characteristics.
Pastor Fischer made it possible for him to attend the grammar school in Neisse and, with the help of the architect Hirschberg, brought him to Munich for artistic training at the private school of Herman Dyck in 1864 .
Academy time
The training at Hermann Dyck's arts and crafts school was short-lived. In the same semester he switched to the class of antiquities at the academy with Johann Georg Hiltensperger and Alexander Ströhuber (1814–1882), where the students were supposed to get to know the ideals of ancient beauty.
In 1865 Grützner entered the painting class of Hermann Anschütz at the academy. He also got advice and suggestions from Carl Theodor von Piloty until he was accepted into his class in 1867.
Piloty's class was packed with aspiring artists from all over the world. "The Hungarians were most strongly represented, Germans from different directions, Russians, Poles and Greeks." Grützner left the academy three years later. In 1870 he moved into his own studio in the garden house at Schwanthalerstraße 18 in Munich. One picture quickly followed the other.
Grützner as a collector
Already in his youth he collected eggs, butterflies and minerals. Later he painted a portrait of the mineralogist Paul von Groth and works like "The Geologist" or "Mineralogist with Glasses" (around 1923). At the age of 14 he made a handwritten and hand-drawn copy of the standard textbook of crystal science (1852) by mineralogist Carl Rammelsberg , probably on behalf of the village pastor. Grützner was a passionate and great collector, he initially preferred pieces from the German late Gothic and early Renaissance . However, in the last decade of his life, he turned away from the late Middle Ages and collected works of art from the Far East. In his larger compositions, however, he almost always added old items, mostly from his antique collection.
family
In 1874 Grützner married Barbara Link, who two years later gave him a daughter named Barbara, whom Grützner called "Bärbele". In 1883, Grützner had his villa built according to plans by the architect Leonhard Romeis near the huge building complex of the Maximilianeum on Praterbergl. In 1884 - after ten years of happy marriage - his wife Barbara died.
The magazine Die Kunst für Alle , published by the painter and writer Friedrich Pecht , reported in 1886: “The painters Eduard Grützner and Ludwig Willroider were awarded the title of professor by Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria ”.
In 1888 Grützner became engaged to Anna Wirthmann, the daughter of the Munich city commandant , who shortly afterwards gave birth to their son Karl Eduard. After he had received the Knight's Cross First Class of the Order of Merit of St. Michael in 1880 , he was raised to the personal nobility status by being awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown in 1916 . He could look back on prosperity and many happy years with his family.
Last years
However, the last years of his life were not quite as harmonious. His wife, who was seventeen years his junior, left him because of a Viennese singer. He divorced in 1899, and his wife's name was never allowed to be mentioned in his house again. In old age he sought solace in Chinese philosophy and began to learn Japanese . Sometimes he added a Buddha figure or a Chinese vase to the composition in his pictures. He also often painted ascetic cardinals with facial features that were not always sympathetic. Grützner died in Munich on April 2, 1925. His grave is in the old part of the Munich forest cemetery .
Eduard von Grützner was, alongside Carl Spitzweg , with whom he was friends, and Franz von Defregger , the most important Munich genre painter in the second half of the 19th century. He placed monastic life at the center of his imagery, which is why he went down in history as a “monk painter”. He loved painting still lifes , although he only created a few stand-alone paintings of this type.
literature
- László Balogh: Eduard von Grützner 1846-1925; a Munich genre painter from the early days; Monograph and critical directory of his oil paintings, oil studies and oil sketches. Mainburg. Pinsker. 1991. ISBN 3920746384
- Eduard von Grützner: A self-biography. Edited by H. Schmidt. Munich 1922
- Heinrich J. Schmidt: Grützner, Eduard Theodor Ritter von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 207 ( digitized version ).
- Master Grützner. Twenty-five copper etchings based on his work. With accompanying verses by Fritz von Osini . Franz Hanfstaengl, Munich 1895.
Web links
- Literature by and about Eduard von Grützner in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ David Bressan, article on Blogspot
- ^ Cäcilie and Oscar Graf, Directory of Collections and Exhibitors, in Exh. Cat .: Japan and East Asia in Art, Official Catalog of the Exhibition, Munich 1909, p. 103
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Grützner, Eduard von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Grützner, Eduard Theodor Ritter von (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German genre painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 26, 1846 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Groß-Karlowitz near Neisse , Silesia |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 2, 1925 |
| Place of death | Munich |