Elise and Georg Heinrich Crola

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Elisabeth Concordia "Elise" Crola , b. Fränkel, (born September 28, 1809 in Berlin , † July 8, 1878 in Ilsenburg ) and Georg Heinrich Crola (actually Croll), (born June 6, 1804 in Dresden , † May 6, 1879 in Ilsenburg) were a German artist couple and creative as a painter and draftsman. Her son Hugo Crola (1841–1910) was also a painter.

biography

Elisabeth Concordia Frankel

Elise was the second of three daughters of the Berlin banker Joseph Maximilian Fränkel and his wife Caroline Sophie Elisabeth von Haller. In the Fränkelschen Haus, art was cared for with understanding and it was always open to Berlin artists. The young Elise had contact with such well-known men as Carl Joseph Begas , the father of Reinhold Begas , Christian Daniel Rauch , Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow , who was a close friend of his father, the painters Eduard Bendemann , Julius Hübner and others. She was gifted and received drawing lessons from the painter Zimmermann very early on. Wilhelm von Schadow advised the parents urgently to give the talented girl a systematic artistic education.

Elise received her religious-philosophical education from Friedrich Schleiermacher , who at that time was already professor of theology at Friedrich Wilhelm University .

Elise's artistic development was interrupted when, contrary to her father's wishes, at the age of 18 (on March 21, 1827) she married Baron Karl Heinrich Ludwig von Weiher , who was 14 years her senior , but the childless marriage was divorced again in 1836.

After the separation, the young woman withdrew more and more and, isolated in the country, devoted herself entirely to artistic work. Her motto was "work brings blessings". She especially loved the Harz and Ilsetal , where she drew a lot, and took up quarters in Ilsenburg.

Georg Heinrich Crola

Georg Heinrich Crola: Large landscape on the Inn .
Georg Heinrich Crola: In the vicinity of Salzburg .

Georg Heinrich, son of the Dresden wholesale merchant Croll, lost his parents at the age of four and grew up with his mother's parents in Meißen . Grandfather Johann Karl Maucksch was a porcelain , battalion, cattle, hunting, landscape and architecture painter at the Royal Saxon Porcelain Manufactory , and at the same time a drawing teacher at the Meißen Princely School St. Afra .

The young Heinrich suffered from an eye problem as a child and often had to stay away from school, but spent a lot of time outdoors. So he often roamed the scenic surroundings of Meissen and got a glimpse of the beauties of nature. In the evening in his attic he recorded the impressions of the day on the drawing board, which he initially kept from his grandfather.

When Henry was 17 years old, his grandfather finally came but the secret of his grandson and told him at the Dresden painters Johann Christian Klengel and Johann David Schubert , which took him into their care and also the possibility of giving, at the Dresden Academy to sit in on.

Heinrich did not have the means to take quarters in Dresden, and so he hiked from Meißen to Dresden and back several times a week, which increased his understanding of the landscape and in particular his view of how the same environment evolves at different times of the day. and seasons changed, greatly sharpened.

In 1822 the grandfather died. Heinrich would have been gifted enough to take over his positions at the porcelain factory and the Princely School and thus secure a steady income, but he preferred to become a "battle painter" and said it would be an advantage to volunteer with the Prussian artillery in Register in Berlin . But they didn't want him.

Heinrich wandered back to Meißen, earning his meals by playing the guitar, and changed his name to Crola in order to avoid the Saxon military service. He gave drawing lessons and continued his studies in Dresden.

In 1825 Heinrich moved to Dresden. Here he became a student of Caspar David Friedrich and Johan Christian Clausen Dahl and grew into the famous circle of Dresden romantics . For his livelihood, however, he had to work as a can painter for a Dresden factory owner and so it was a lucky circumstance that in 1828 the Duke of Coburg-Gotha saw some of Crola's works by the Saxon Crown Prince which he particularly liked. Heinrich was commissioned to paint castles and landscapes in the vicinity of Gotha .

Soon, however, he referred to commissioned painting as “comet tail life”, again gave up a secure existence, left Dresden in 1828 and went on a hike. He was particularly impressed by the beauty of the Harz Mountains , especially the valley of the Ilse and Ilsenburg, where he took an apartment.

In the summer of 1829, Count Henrich zu Stolberg-Wernigerode allowed him to set up his painting workshop in Wernigeroder Castle . With the works from this time, especially the sunset on the Brocken and the pictures from Christianental near Wernigerode , he achieved some success at art exhibitions in Hamburg and Dresden and was also able to sell some pictures.

Again on behalf of the Duke of Coburg-Gotha, he now painted in Styria , the Salzkammergut and Tyrol , but now also found buyers for his pictures in Munich and so he spent several successful years there from 1830. In 1838 his wanderlust led him to the Rhine , where he met the Düsseldorf School of Painting , further to the Teutoburg Forest and finally back to Ilsenburg.

When he wanted to move back into his old Ilsenburg quarter, however, a Baroness Weiher from Berlin lived there. This coincidence was fateful for the Crolas.

Life together

Plaques on the house on Punierstrasse in Ilsenburg remind of the Crolas' "Altenstübchen".
The Crolagrab in the Kreuzfriedhof in the Schloßstraße in Ilsenburg

The painter Julius Huebner arranged for Heinrich to visit the Fränkel house in Berlin. Here he admired Elise's paintings and drawings, all the more because up until now he had not really had a high opinion of women painting .

An extraordinary affection developed between Elisabeth Concordia and Georg Heinrich, which finally led to the marriage on October 23, 1840. The connection between the two was very fortunate, both family and artistically.

In 1841 Elise gave birth to their first son, whom they named Hugo and who later became a history painter and professor at the Düsseldorf School of Painting . The first child was followed by four other siblings who brought life to the “Crola House” across from Ilsenburg Castle , which was purchased in 1847. Nevertheless, the Crola couple found time for many trips together to Switzerland , Italy and Norway and also to Munich , Berlin and Dresden often visited destinations. They maintained friendly relationships with many artists, including Wilhelm von Kügelgen and Ludwig Richter , their house has always been a focus of artistic and social life in the county of Wernigerode.

But the Crolas were also very committed to social issues. B. a "nursing home" in Ilsenburg.

Heinrich, who in later years preferred the nickname Georg, was finally only able to work with strong glasses and so he painted his last picture in 1867. It is entitled “View of the Ilsetal and the Brocken from the blast furnace”.

Elise died at the age of 68. Some time after his wife's death, Georg Heinrich suffered a stroke from which he initially recovered, but then passed away without any acute illness.

The two Crolas had always been very religious. Their final resting place is in the Ilsenburg Kreuzfriedhof at the foot of a crucifixion group, a sculpture that was cast by Adam Krafft in Munich and that the Crolas brought back from their travels, restored and donated to the Protestant community of Ilsenburg.

plant

The entire work of the Crolas is extensive:

There are well over 2000 drawings by Elise, including a very famous cycle from biblical history. She created portraits of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , Ludwig Tieck and Henriette Herz , Friedrich Julius Stahl and Peter von Cornelius .

She also created a large number of sculptures, including a bust of Herder's granddaughter Amalie, with whom she was friends, and of BA Huber.

Elise also developed great skill in the design of porcelain utensils, i.e. vases and dishes. The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV personally bought a large tableware from her and, on the occasion of his silver wedding anniversary, received a large Etruscan vase made by Elise, on which the wedding at Cana was depicted, as a gift from the Crolas .

Georg Heinrich created around 270 paintings and many drawings.

The works of the Crolas can be seen u. a. in:

Castle Museum Wernigerode, Hüttenmuseum Ilsenburg, Kunsthalle Hamburg , Kunsthalle Kiel , Neue Pinakothek Munich, collection Schaefer Schweinfurt.

literature

Web links

Commons : Georg Heinrich Crola  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files