Erich Behrendt (painter)

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Grave of Erich Behrendt in Langlau (2015)

Erich Behrendt (born November 13, 1899 in Wehlau , East Prussia , † November 3, 1983 in Erlangen ) was a German painter and graphic artist .

Life

Already drawn to painting as a child, Behrendt attended the German Order School in Wehlau . After taking part in the First World War in 1917/18 , he went to the Königsberg Art Academy in 1918 . He became a master student of Arthur Degner and got his own studio . Behrendt was brought to Berlin by Max Liebermann in 1924 and exhibited in the Berlin Secession and the Free Secession . Ernst-Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff temporarily influenced his style of painting. He lived from commissioned portraits and pictures of the Curonian Spit around Nida . The Prussian State Library and Berlin museums bought pictures from him. He created graphic works for well-known publishers and private portrait commissions. He received the three-year state grant from Deutsche Studentenhilfe ( Hugo J. Herzfeld Foundation).

Because he worked with opponents of National Socialism , he was briefly arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo . From 1933 he was no longer able to exhibit. Drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1939 , Behrendt took part in the entire Second World War, most recently in Normandy . In 1944 his Berlin apartment was bombed with all the pictures. His wife Charlotte and their son Hans initially stayed in East Prussia. While fleeing, his wife died of typhus in Mecklenburg . Behrendt met his twelve-year-old son again in Wilster , where he settled down in 1945 and exchanged drawings for food. From 1948 he worked at the adult education center and became a member of the Steinburg artists' association . In 1949 he married his second wife Irene geb. Happy, a painter. He exhibited his new works in Itzehoe and in the Landeshaus Kiel .

In 1951 the family moved to Hamburg , where Behrendt's most fertile creative period began. He illustrated the Deutsche Allgemeine Sonntagsblatt , the Ostpreußenblatt , Merian booklets and books by Heinrich Böll and Siegfried Lenz . His drawings for works by Balzac , Dostoevsky and Gogol were not published. With his wife he toured Turkey , Italy and Greece. The summer stays in Ticino and Austria gave him many ideas for oil and watercolor painting, which were much more important to him than the (bread-making) illustrations. He painted winter street scenes in Hamburg and Fuhlsbüttel and oil paintings of Gandria and Orselina in Ticino.

In search of rural tranquility, Behrendt moved - for the first time voluntarily - with his wife to the Franconian Langlau in 1967 . There he concentrated on watercolor painting, preferably on Japanese paper . The motifs were village life - and East Prussia. From Langlau he was regularly represented at the exhibitions in Munich's Haus der Kunst .

Shortly before his 84th birthday, Behrendt died in Erlangen (probably in the university clinic) and was buried in the Langlau cemetery. He left his wife and son from his first marriage who, with his wife in Berlin, looks after most of the estate.

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, the East Prussia Cultural Center brought together oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and illustrated books by Behrendt, which were exhibited in 1999 at the Art Forum Fränkisches Seenland in Gunzenhausen . Siegfried Lenz , a close friend of Behrendt , came to the vernissage .

Honors

Fonts

  • with Heinz Zahrnt : Postille 53 , 57 drawings. Hamburg 1953
  • with Johann Christoph: One day says it all - the church year in pictures , 54 drawings. Sunday newspaper GmbH 1959
  • with Jakob Flach : Ticino - sketches and impressions . Hamburg 1965

photos

painting

drawings

  • to the novel by Ilse Liepsch von Schlobach: Rain from the Stars. A novel from our day.

literature

  • Andreas Franke, Michl Schmidt: Life and work of the artist Erich Behrendt . Simon Marius -Gymnasium Gunzenhausen 1988/89
  • Karl Friedrich Zink: Erich Behrendt - an East Prussian painter in Franconia

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dates of life and spelling of the name according to information from the Pfofeld community
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Karl Friedrich Zink : Erich Behrendt - an East Prussian painter in Franconia
  3. ^ A b Robert Albinus: Königsberg Lexicon . Würzburg 2002, ISBN 3-88189-441-1
  4. ↑ Ostpreußenblatt  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Volume 13 / Episode 50, accessed on May 25, 2014@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / archiv.preussische-allgemeine.de  
personal data
SURNAME Behrendt, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH November 13, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Wehlau
DATE OF DEATH 3rd November 1983
Place of death Langlau