Emil Hünten

Emil Hünten , contemporary woodcut by Richard Brend'amour

Johann Emil Hünten (born January 19, 1827 in Paris , † February 1, 1902 in Düsseldorf ) was a painter , draftsman and illustrator of the Düsseldorf School . His work is extraordinarily diverse; He was known and highly honored during his lifetime primarily for his historicizing depictions of the life of Frederick the Great and in event and history painting , which reached its climax during his lifetime. Other important representatives besides Hünten were Adolph Menzel , Wilhelm Camphausen and Georg Bleibtreu . He is one of the most important German painters of the time.

Life

Hünten on a photo by Arnold Overbeck , collection of the Musée d'Orsay

Naturalistic tendencies existed in many European countries, but it was only in France that realism developed into a movement. Hünten, son of the Parisian piano composer François Hünten , began his artistic studies with Hippolyte Flandrin and Horace Vernet at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and continued his education in Antwerp in 1849 with Gustave Wappers , Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans , Nicaise de Keyser and Hendrik Leys .

After he had made his first horse studies from nature with the Prussian artillery in Koblenz, he settled in Düsseldorf in 1854, where he became a student of Wilhelm Camphausen and a member of the artists' association "Malkasten" . Here he conducted horse studies again and painted his first large-format picture of cuirassiers from the time of Frederick II , bursting over a bridge to attack. With the painting Battle of Krefeld 1860 Hünten ended his depictions of historical Frederician scenes and turned to contemporary motifs.

He first attended the campaign in Schleswig-Holstein in 1864 with the Austrian brigade. At that time, in addition to Hünten, only the painters Camphausen, Georg Bleibtreu and Louis Braun were among the fighting troops as painters; other artists were only added in later conflicts. Hünten himself was drafted as a Prussian militant and participated in the actions himself. Even during the war of 1866 he was a Landwehr officer in the Main Army 17th Regiment. In 1870 he was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle by the Crown Prince of Prussia , who invited him in the same year to accompany him as a painter on his campaigns. Hünten attended the staff. During the Franco-German War of 1870/71 he visited the various army camps and battlefields several times . This gave his numerous large and small images of war an extraordinary closeness to reality. At the exhibitions in Berlin in 1872 and Vienna in 1873, works by Hünten were awarded medals. In 1878 he became a member of the Berlin Academy , in 1879 he was appointed professor. His pupils were, for example, the English military painter Ernest Crofts , the animal painter Ludwig Fay and the history painter Moritz Blanckarts . His colleagues were the painters Johann Peter Theodor Janssen , Georg Oeder and Wilhelm Simmler .

Emil Hünten worked until the end of his life. He died of a stroke on February 1, 1902.

family

Emil Hünten was the grandson of the composer Daniel Hünten and the son of the composer Franz Hünten , during whose time in Paris he was born. Emil Hünten married Emilie Coninx on May 14, 1857 in Düsseldorf (born October 11, 1835 in Düsseldorf; † June 5, 1917 in Düsseldorf). Several children emerged from the marriage, including the painter Max Hünten (1869–1936).

Work and meaning

rating

Hünten's works were created at a time when photography was not yet an issue. In addition to their artistic importance, they were also of great documentary importance. They stand in contrast to the bombastic painting of the Romantic period and were perceived by contemporaries as factual, wrote the Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst in 1899: Emil Hünten and Christian Sell are moving more towards a simple representation of the representational . In battle and hunt painting, for example, the representation of horses was given great importance. In particular, depicting the movement of the horses was a major challenge. Aptitude for observation, military knowledge and accuracy in the representation made Hünten, who had acquired the reputation of a Frederician history painter in the 1850s , to one of the leading battle painter of his time. In addition to the patriotic pathos in the mostly large battle paintings, the genre of the personal scene is in the foreground in some works . In these he processed his own observations and experiences in detail. Horses and their riders are generally a central motif in Emil Hünten's work and a contribution to animal painting .

His works were coveted by public clients and their art commissions as well as by wealthy citizens. One of his customers, for example, was the sparkling wine manufacturer and art collector Carl Wegeler ( Deinhard ). In 1878 Otto von Bismarck turned to Hünten with a personal request to paint another scene from the battle of Gravelotte . His sons had fought there and were wounded. In this painting Wilhelm von Bismarck can be seen in the middle next to the regimental commander Colonel von Auerswald and Herbert von Bismarck, slightly offset, in the background.

The elaboration of Die Aretierung der Kaiserin Éugenie by Prussian soldiers can be regarded as a curiosity ; the event depicted probably never took place. It was possibly commissioned.

influence

A woodcut based on a work by Hünten

Mural of the Berlin Hall of Fame on a postcard

Many authors have been inspired by Hünten's works or have used them as a source of information, both in historiography and in literature.

The best known is the reference in the writings of Theodor Fontane , who knew many paintings by Hünten. “After the great Hünten panorama from St. Privat; - a very brilliant achievement. Individual things seem shocking. I stayed for over an hour. ”Fontane noted in his diary on March 7, 1881. For his description of the battle of Zorndorf in his hikes through the Mark Brandenburg he used the corresponding painting by Hünten. He made the following comments:

“The scenery is picturesque: a deeply cutting brook in the middle of a cornfield, which, rising gently to the right and left and dotted with red poppies everywhere, becomes the scene here and there for an unequal fight. On the left Prussian grenadiers, partly covered by trees, on the right Kalmyks and Kirghiz, steppe riders in picturesque costume, with bows and arrows and a well-filled quiver on their backs. The picture presents itself simply as a genre piece, but at the same time reveals a study and an accuracy, whereby it moves, as if by itself, into a higher genre. "

- Theodor Fontane

In painting, the New Objectivity was based on realism. George Grosz obtained illustrations of works by Emil Hünten to study.

Since their creation, works by Hünten have been distributed as reproductions. During Hünten's lifetime it was wood and steel engravings, and since the turn of the century also art prints (e.g. as annual gifts to members of art associations). Today many works are offered as digital prints on canvas.

At the international music festival week "Bergisches Musikfenster 2007", works of art by Emil Hünten were shown as an accompanying program to the musical event (including works by Franz Hünten).

Works (selection)

Frederick the Great in front of Schweidnitz, 1865

French rider

Equestrian battle in front of the village

The battle of Königgrätz

painting

In Germany, works by Hünten are exhibited in the Kunsthalle Kiel , the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hanover , the German Historical Museum Berlin , the Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf , the Museum for Communication in Frankfurt and the Bismarck Museum in Friedrichsruh. A selection of well-known works (and their locations as far as public and known):

• Battle of Katholisch-Hennersdorf (1855), Battle of Reichenbach (1856), Battle of Zorndorf (1858) and other scenes from the Seven Years War ,
• Zieten and his teacher the Austrian General von Baronay , 1857
• Battle of Krefeld (painting) , 1860 (since 1864 in the Kunsthalle Kiel)
• Cavalry Battle , 1860
• Cavalry Battle , 1861
• Skirmish between Prussian infantry and Cossacks in the battle of Zorndorf 1758 , 1862 (from the collection of Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand Goetz, Frankfurt / M)
• Blücher / Marschall Vorwärts, 1863 (in the Kunsthalle Kiel)
• General von Nostitz near Översee and the Austrian parliamentary on February 5 , 1864, 1864
• The storming of the Düppeler Schanzen No. 4 and 6 (two pictures for the German Crown Prince), 1864
• Seydlitz officers on patrol (shown at the Academy exhibition in Berlin in 1864, then in Königsberg Palace, lost since 1945, possibly destroyed)
• Frederick the Great in front of Schweidnitz , 1865
• The soldier's pursuit , 1865
• Battle of Königgrätz (painting) , 1866 (as a gift from the Emperor for the Hall of Fame of the Berlin Armory, now in the German Historical Museum)
• The Spy / The Search , 1867
• Patrol battle near Thorstedt (owned by the Count von Galen), (Note: Torstedt)
• Recognition ride of Major von Unger near Sadowa , 1868
• The Crown Prince and the Guard at Königgrätz
• The 1st Guard Dragoon Regiment at Mars-la-Tour (owned by Prince Reuss)
• Meeting with Prince Friedrich Carl of Prussia , 1870
• Field Post, 1870 (first version, in the collection of the Museum Foundation Post and Telecommunications)
• Hessian Division near St.-Privat , 1870 (for the Grand Duke of Hesse, as a steel engraving in the Hessian State Archives in Darmstadt)
• Infantryman and Zuave , 44 × 38 cm, sign. "Emil Hünten 72" (auctioned in Hamburg 1930)
• French report rider / galloping report rider , 1872
• Field Post , 1873 (second version)
• Cavalry attack in the Franco-Prussian War 1871 , 1874
• From the battle of Gravelotte . 1876 ​​(first version, Foundation Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf)
• Battle with French cavalry near Elsaßhausen / scene from the battle near Wörth , 1877 (from the possession of Empress Augusta, then in the National Gallery, since 1945 missing)
• Chasseurs d'Afrique near Sedan , 1879
• The people of Bremen near Loigny / Battle of Loigny, 1879/1882 (once in the Upper Hall of the Bremen Town Hall, today on loan from the Kunsthalle Bremen in the military history collection of the Scharnhorst Barracks Bremen)
• Departure of the Grand Duke Ludwig IV. 1870 in front of the Heylschen Schlösschen , 1882 (formerly Dalbergian property)
• Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch reports to the outgoing cavalry general Wilhelm Graf zu Stolberg-Wernigerode , 1882
• Two parforce riders galloping , 1883 (in front of an obstacle on a hunting route)
• Two Parforce riders , 1883 (one of them on a white horse)
• The hunt (collaborator on the painting: Georg Oeder)
• Prussian cavalry attacking , 1883 (or 1884 as a scene of the German-Danish War)
  

  Report of the Düsseldorf 14th Cavalry Brigade by Major General von Rauch to Wilhelm Graf zu Stolberg-Wernigerode (on the gray horse) as the outgoing Commanding General of the VII Army Corps in Münster
• Skirmish , 1883
• Prince Wilhelm II / Meeting of Prussian Hussars and Dragoons before the battle, 1883
• Kaiser Wilhelm I on horseback , 1883
• The imperial parade at Lommersum / "From the imperial parade at Lommersum", 1885 (gift from the emperor to his officer corps)
• Attacking German hussar regiment in the war of 1870/71 , 1886
• Frederick the Great , 1887 (destroyed in the ballroom of the Verein am Ostwall Society, Krefeld, 1943).
• Kaiser Wilhelm I and Crown Prince Friedrich riding at the head of a regiment (shown in Eduard Schultes Kunstsalon Düsseldorf and Berlin, Unter den Linden 4, 1888 )
• The 11th Hussars at Vionville , 1891
• Equestrian scene / Prussian riders on the country road with a covered wagon in a rain-wet autumn landscape in front of the village , 1892
• The 11th Hussars at the Battle of Ligny June 16, 1815 , 1893
• Battle at Tobitschau 1866 , 1894
• Prince Friedrich Carl in the days before Orléans , 1895 (shown at the great Berlin art exhibition in 1895)
• Prussian soldiers on horseback
• Raid in the forest
• Prussian hunters and a mounted hussar
• Storming of a mountain slope by Prussian infantry
• The Lower Rhine Fusilier Regiment No. 39 , City Museum, State Capital Düsseldorf

Panorama picture

In 1881 Emil Hünten painted the large panorama picture Sturm auf St. Privat . This was a popular sight in Berlin at the time and also earned him several public and private commissions. Although it is extensively cited in the literature, no illustration has been preserved. With Die Hessische Division in the Battle of St. Privat , the panorama picture and the painting for Otto von Bismarck, Hünten painted scenes from the battle of Gravelotte at least three times .

drawings

• Soldier in storm step and in full gear
• Study of a Prussian hussar with a fur hat
• Study of a Danish Soldier (watercolor drawing)
• Study of a Prussian soldier , 1880
• Standing infantryman
• Seated hussar
• Mountaineer and Eagle (missing since 1939)

Some drawings and a sketchbook are in the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf. There are two letters in the Leipzig City History Museum.

illustration

Hünten has also made himself known as an illustrator. a. through his drawings on the history of the campaign of the Prussian Main Army (Bielefeld 1867) and on other works.

literature

• Anna Ahrens: Hünten, Emil Johannes (Johann-Emil) In: Bénédicte Savoy, France Nerlich (Ed.): Paris apprenticeship years. A lexicon for training German painters in the French capital. Volume 2: 1844-1870. Berlin / Boston 2015.
• Emil Hünten . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 18 : Hubatsch – Ingouf . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1925, p. 61 .
• Nicole De Vilder: Hünten, Emil . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 75, de Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-023180-9 , p. 354 f.

Web links

Commons : Emil Hünten  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The battle of Königgrätz . Images of the work on europeana.eu

Digitized edition of illustrations in the University and State Library Düsseldorf :

• Strange stories of Brother Lustig, who was a soldier who had abdicated: graceful and useful to read and adorned / redesigned with a lot of excellent descriptions . from Ellen. Ill. By Emil Hünten. Arnz, Dusseldorf 1857. urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-70554
• Illustration in: Bernhard Endrulat: An imperial festival in the "Malkasten" in Düsseldorf: and 11 original woodcut drawings. Voss, Dusseldorf 1878. urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 2-164
• Illustration in: Fairy tales and legends for young and old. Arnz / Voss, Dusseldorf 1857, Volume 2. urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 2-314
• The Battle of Rossbach . urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 2-35103

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alwin Schultz: Art and Art History: Painting and verifältierenden Künste , p. 109, 1890.
2. ↑ From a quote in: Ralph Gleis: Anton Romako (1832–1889): The emergence of the modern history picture . Böhlau, Cologne 2010, p. 139.
3. ↑ aris, Musée d'Orsay, Cote cliché: 98-012663 N ° d'inventaire: Pho1986-75-252 Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais. In: photo.rmn.fr. Retrieved January 9, 2015 (French). 
4. ^ Friedrich Schaarschmidt : On the history of Düsseldorf art, especially in the XIX. Century . Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia, Düsseldorf 1902, p. 229.
5. ^ Frank Becker : Images of War and Nation: The Wars of Unification in the Bourgeois Public in Germany 1864-1913 . Oldenbourg, Munich 2001, p. 413.
6. ↑ Directory of the fighters living in Düsseldorf at the Sedan Festival in 1895. August Bagel, Düsseldorf, 1895, p. 32.
7. ^ Journal of Fine Arts. Volume 5, 1870, p. 94.
8. ^ Journal of Fine Arts. Volume 5, 1870, p. 176 ( limited preview in Google book search).
9. ↑ Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst Volume 24, 1899, p. 222.
10. ↑ Die Kunst Volume 5, 1902, p. 281.
11. ↑ Hünten, Johann Emil. In: stiftung-volmer.de. Retrieved January 9, 2015 . 
12. ↑ Critique of the work "Feldpost" on the website of the Museum Foundation Post and Telecommunications Inventory number: 4.0.817 Title: Painting "Feldpost". In: emp-web-09.zetcom.ch. Retrieved January 9, 2015 . 
13. ↑ Shown in this context at the exhibition: Animal Death: Realities and Myths , an exhibition of the Westphalian Museum Office Münster Landscape Association Westphalia-Lippe and the Natural History Museum of the City of Bielefeld, 1996.
14. ↑ Barbara Kaufhold: German Sektreklame from 1879-1918 - Your development under economic, social and artistic aspects. (PDF) Dissertation, University of Bochum, 2002, p. 120.
15. ↑ Matthias Steinbach: Abyss Metz: War experience, everyday siege. P. 35.
16. ↑ Hünten, Johann Emil - The Aretization of Empress Éugenie by Prussian soldiers, undated In: stiftung-volmer.de. Retrieved January 9, 2015 . 
17. ^ Theodor Fontane, Helmuth Nürnberger , Walter Keitel: works, writings and letters. 1962, p. 1137.
18. ^ Theodor Fontane, Walter Keitel: Works, Writings and Letters / Dept. 3. Memoirs, Selected Writings and Reviews. Volume 5. On German history, art and art history. Munchen 1986, p. 926.
19. ↑ International Auctioneers. In: internationalauctioneers.com. Retrieved January 9, 2015 . 
20. ↑ George Grosz: An Autobiography. 1998, p. 56.
21. ↑ Technical reproducibility: on the cultural sociology of mass media reproduction. P. 108.
22. ^ France, St. Privat / Grand Ducal Hessian Division near St. Privat on August 18, 1870  in the German Digital Library
23. ↑ Galerie Commeter (ed.): Auction of a Viennese collection together with contributions from Hamburg and foreign property: paintings and sculptures by German and French artists of the 19th and 20th centuries; Old Masters ; [15. and December 16, 1930] . Catalog no. 45 . Hamburg 1930, p. 12 , doi : 10.11588 / diglit.8636 ( digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de ).
24. ^ Lost Art Internet Database. (No longer available online.) In: lostart.de. Archived from the original on January 9, 2015 ; accessed on January 9, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
25. ^ Art historical research in Krefeld: Friedrich the Great and his stockings. In: rp-online.de. January 10, 2013, accessed January 9, 2015 . 
26. ^ Lost Art Internet Database. In: lostart.de. Retrieved January 9, 2015 . 

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