Ernst Hemken

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Georg Melchior Bernhard Ernst Hemken (born April 21, 1834 in Jever , † July 11, 1911 in Dresden ) was a German painter and portraitist .

Life

Hemken came from a respected Bockhorn merchant family and was the son of the senior court attorney Friedrich Christoph Melchior Hemken (1805–1871) and his wife Dorothea nee. Decker (1813-1890). He was the grandson of the writer Melchior Hemken (1766–1806).

Hemken attended the Mariengymnasium Jever and actually wanted to become a seaman . In 1852 he was, as its in Varel active landscape painter Louis Karl August Preller , pupil of the painter Friedrich Preller the Elder at the Grand Ducal Saxon art school in Weimar . There he lived with his teacher's family, with whose son Friedrich , who was also active in painting, he soon became close friends. In 1855 Hemken continued his education at the Dresden Art Academy under the gallery director and later Nazarene Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld . This made him familiar with portrait painting and also gave him suggestions on biblical topics such as Adam and Eve find the body of Abel (1857, Oldenburg City Museum ) and Potiphar's wife accuses Joseph . For one of his paintings he received the first prize of the academy. The sale of his pictures enabled Hemken to travel to Rome with Friedrich Preller the Elder and Friedrich Preller the Younger via Genoa , Florence and Livorno in 1859 . They arrived there at the end of October and spent the winter in Olevano Romano . Hemken joined the German Artists' Association and also spent the following summer in Olevano.

During this time Hemken painted an altarpiece for the church in Brake , which he later completed in Weimar under the supervision of Preller and Bonaventura Genelli . Due to an illness, he did not return to Germany until August 1861. He worked in Bremen and Jever, where he made copies of family pictures for Count Wedel in Gödens Castle and painted several portraits and his self-portrait ( Jever Castle Museum ). Hemken then went to London for three years , where his brother lived. Only portraits of him are known from this period. In 1865 he followed Friedrich Preller's invitation to return to Weimar. Here, together with Edmund Kanoldt, he created the base frieze for the 3rd Preller's Odyssey Cycle (1865/68) in the Grand Ducal Museum based on Preller's design.

Hemken, who was unmarried, stayed in Dresden from 1869 until his death. Here he was mainly active as a portraitist. The copying of paintings in the Dresden gallery (such as Raffael , Correggio , Tizian ) came more and more to the fore, however, since painting according to late Nazarene ideals had meanwhile outlived itself. In Dresden, Hemken was still in contact with Friedrich Preller the Younger, who had lived there since 1867, as well as with his Oldenburg colleague August tom Dieck , who was three years older than him , who had a similar artistic development and represented the same artistic views.

Hemken died in Dresden in 1911. Ernst-Hemken-Strasse was named after him in his hometown of Jever.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ biography of August tom Dieck. in the Stadtwiki Dresden
personal data
SURNAME Hemken, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hemken, Georg Melchior Bernhard Ernst (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and portraitist
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1834
PLACE OF BIRTH Jever
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1911
Place of death Dresden