Ernst Meyer (painter)

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Ernst Meyer

Ernst Meyer (born May 11, 1797 in Altona , † January 31, 1861 in Rome ) was a German-Danish genre painter .

Life

Ernst (Ahron) Meyer came from a Jewish merchant family in Altona. After his parents divorced, he came to live with relatives in Copenhagen in 1812 , where he attended the art academy under Christian August Lorentzen and Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg . In 1816 and 1818 he was awarded a silver medal; In 1818 he stayed in Dresden . When he failed in the competition for the small gold medal of the academy in Copenhagen in 1819 , he went to Munich . In 1821 he made a second attempt, but failed again and was expelled from the academy after a scandal. Meyer returned to Munich and in 1824 emigrated to Italy with his college friend, the sculptor Herman Wilhelm Bissen , where - apart from several trips - he stayed until the end of his life.

Meyer's favorite place to stay was the mountain village of Olevano. In 1825 he traveled to Sicily. Friendship connected him with his compatriots Johann August Krafft, Johann Bravo, Friedrich Thöming , Rudolf Lehmann and Louis Gurlitt . He was one of the regulars of the legendary Café Greco in Rome and he was a participant in the artist festivals at the Cervaro caves. Since 1840 his freedom of movement was severely restricted by an illness, which he covered up with great self-irony and feared ridicule. To alleviate his ailments, he stayed for two years in the cold water sanatorium in Graefenberg / Silesia in 1841. In 1842 he courted Amalie Dorothea von Metz there and adored the so-called “snow sketchbook” for her. He then traveled via Hamburg to Copenhagen, where he reconciled with the academy in 1843, which made him a member. A trip to England, Scotland, Sweden, Belgium and Switzerland followed. In 1845 he was back in Rome. Further cures followed again in Graefenberg in 1847 and in Helgoland, Interlaken and Baden-Baden in 1850, with stays in London and Paris in between.

Meyer felt himself to be a cosmopolitan and reacted with reluctance to the national contrasts that came to a head in Rome in 1848. Meyer is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Rome; his compatriot, the well-known Jewish emancipation politician Salomon Ludwig Steinheim, dedicated an obituary to him.

Services

Meyer, who emphasized his German origins in Copenhagen , drew attention to himself at art exhibitions in Copenhagen and Altona in 1819 with small-format oil paintings on Goethe's Faust . In Munich he continued to illustrate German classics under the influence of Peter von Cornelius . Under the influence of Ludwig Emil Grimm , several etchings with portraits of Bavarian folk types were made in Munich .

In Rome Meyer turned to Italian folk life. At first he painted slightly caricaturing depictions of the everyday life of the Capuchins , then he turned to popular life, which he observed intensely and recorded in drawings that were quickly and quickly put on paper, the total of which is estimated at around 5,000. He established his reputation as one of the leading genre painters with two counterparts of a public letter writer, which Thorvaldsen acquired and which Meyer often repeated with slight modifications. Among his studies, landscape and architectural motifs should also be emphasized.

An illness-related paralysis made painting in oil impossible for him since around 1850. Meyer was introduced to the watercolor technique by a French painter and in the last 15 years of his life created small-format watercolors, which were mostly repetitions of his well-known genre motifs, limited to two to three people.

Works

  • Scene at a fountain near a Capuchin monastery. 1827.
  • A street clerk in Rome writes a letter for a young girl. 1827. 62.2 x 69.3 cm. Thorvaldsen Museum , Copenhagen. ( thorvaldsensmuseum.dk ).
  • A street clerk in Rome reads a letter to a young girl. 1829. 62.2 x 69.3 cm. Thorvaldsen Museum Copenhagen. ( thorvaldsensmuseum.dk ).
  • At the market square and fountain near Tivoli. 1830. 52 × 67 cm. Altonaer Museum Hamburg.
  • A Lazzaroni family. 1831. 48.5 x 68.2 cm. National Gallery Berlin . ( spk-digital.de ).
  • Neapolitan fishing family. 1833; Acquired by Prince Christian Fredrik.
  • View of the lamellas at Olevano. 1836. 26 x 45.5 cm. Statens Museum for Kunst Copenhagen. ( smk.dk ).
  • A boy is brought to the monastery by his parents. 1836. 49 × 57 cm. Schleswig-Holstein State Museums Foundation Gottorf Castle , Schleswig.
  • Landing at Capri. Seafarers bring travelers ashore, 1837
  • View from the port in Procida to Vesuvius. 1846. 27.5 × 39.5 cm. Museumsberg Flensburg .
  • Two friends. Boy taking his afternoon nap on a pig. several versions: Copenhagen, Art Museum, Hirschsprung Collection, Nivaagaard's Malerisamling; lithographed by Johan Adolph Kittendorff

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: The genre painter Ernst Meyer . In: Cristin Conrad, Christof Trepesch (eds.): “Courage, dear Julie!”: Moritz Rugendas and the painter Julie Hagen Schwarz . Wißner, Augsburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-95786-060-6 , pp. 48-55 .
personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meyer, Ahron
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Danish genre painter, draftsman and etcher
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1797
PLACE OF BIRTH Altona
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1861
Place of death Rome