Felix Maria Diogg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Felix Maria Diogg: Self-Portrait

Felix Maria Diogg (born July 1, 1762 in Andermatt , † February 19, 1834 in Rapperswil ) was a Swiss portrait painter .

Life

Felix Maria Diogg was the son of the carpenter, painter, gilder and farmer Johann Columban. His mother was Katharina Deflorin von Tavetsch . Little is known about Diogg's childhood. After the Andermatt fire in 1766, the Diogg family moved over the Oberalp Pass to their mother's family in Tschamut, where they managed a small mountain estate.

Urseren Felix Halter's valley doctor seems to have been the first to become aware of the boy's drawing skills. He recommended the abbot of Disentis Columban Sozzi, the young Diogg to the drawing and painting school of Nidwaldners (1732-1798) by Johann Melchior Wyrsch Besançon to send. The town was visited by numerous young Swiss in the 18th century to learn the French language and to study medicine and law. Wyrsch, a successful painter, had settled in Besançon in 1768 and founded an academy in 1773 with his friend, the sculptor Luc Breton. From 1780 to 1784 Diogg seems to have stayed in Besançon. It was there in 1782 that Diogg's first preserved and signed work was created - a drawing with studies of the head; today in the Bündner Kunstmuseum in Chur.

After the death of his parents, Diogg returned to Andermatt in 1784. In the same year, Ursern Franz Josef Nager and his wife had their Talammann painted by the young artist, and a year later, various personalities from Uri. From 1785 to 1788 Diogg stayed in Florence, Rome and Naples, after which he returned to Switzerland to his uncle in Ems. In 1789 he made a trip to Altdorf and Einsiedeln in the March .

In Lachen he met Felix Cajetan Fuchs from Rapperswil, who had been trained as a painter in Augsburg and Rome, but started a political career in 1783 and became a town clerk in Rapperswil. Probably through his mediation, Diogg portrayed a number of members of the noble Rapperswils families in 1790 and 1791, whereupon he decided to settle there. In 1791 Diogg was granted citizenship of the city. In July 1792 he married Lisette Curti, the daughter of the guild master Carl Ludwig Curti, a niece of Cajetan Fuchs. The couple had four children, of whom the son Felix Columban (1795–1842) made a name for himself as a politician and officer. His daughter Maria Franziska Magdalena Elisabeth Bonaventura (1793–1855) was married to Jost Ribar Rüegg von Schmerikon. She died with no offspring. Two other children, a boy and a girl, died after giving birth.

Self portrait

From Rapperswil he worked out a leading position as a portrait painter. He received his commissions primarily in Zurich and eastern Switzerland, later in Bern, western Switzerland, Alsace and Germany. At thirty, Diogg was a made man and a famous portraitist.

Diogg's rural origins led to tensions in 1794 with the noble patrician families Rapperswils and aristocratic refugees from France, who often appeared arrogant. His wife's uncle, the doctor and governor Fidel Fuchs, reprimanded the artist in a sharp letter. Diogg responded, influenced by the ideas of the French Revolution , with a reply in the form of an 80-page pamphlet in which he relentlessly attacked his relatives and the hypocrisy of the aristocracy. Significantly, there is probably only one copy of the font today.

Diogg was often on the road for months. He painted in Appenzell, St. Gallen and Herisau and in the Sarganserland. From 1799–1809 he was often in Bern and western Switzerland. From 1810 to 1820 he created many works in Alsace and Karlsruhe, where in 1814 he portrayed Elisabeth von Baden , the wife of the Russian tsar Alexander I. In 1797 he met Goethe in Stäfa , where in 1798 he wrote the "Freedom plaque for the patriots disciplined by the Zurich council" painted. But Zurich remained the center of his sphere of activity.

Works

In the 50 years of his work Felix Maria Diogg painted more than 600 portraits. He participated in exhibitions in Berlin, Zurich, Bern and St. Gallen. Diogg painted almost exclusively portraits and a few group representations. The vast majority of the over 300 preserved works are made up of paintings; there are also some drawings, watercolors and etchings. Whether the large mural on the tower of the Tujetsch church , a St. George on horseback, is also by Diogg is disputed; Erwin Poeschel does not consider the attribution to be credible for stylistic reasons.

Diogg's portraits are mostly simple and focused on details. He painted his portraits carefully and objectively. He placed particular emphasis on the elaboration of individual facial features and the representation of the eyes. They are mostly individual portraits in which the head stands out against the dark background. Diogg's works are privately or publicly owned throughout Switzerland and abroad. Many of them are in Alsace and Rapperswil.

  • Johann Matthias Naeff-Dalp, Altstätten SG

  • Maria Naeff-Dalp, Altstätten SG

  • Karl Mueller Friedberg (1755–1863), first Landammann of the Canton of St. Gallen

  • Maria Franziska Diogg (1793–1855), daughter of the painter, oil on canvas (relined), around 1814

  • Karl Domnik Greith, oil on wood, around 1800, detailed view

literature

  • Hans Caspar Hirzel : About Diogg the Mahler, a pupil of nature . Ziegler, Zurich / Leipzig 1792.
  • Ludivic Hendry: Il portretist da Tschamut. Ovra svizra per lectura alla giuventetgna. (= Swiss work for young people = Oeuvre suisse des lectures pour la jeunesse = Ouvra svizra da lectüra per la giuventüna = Edizioni svizzere per la gioventù. (OSL). Volume 1208). Ligia Romontscha Cuera, o. O. [Zurich] 1972, OCLC 893760081 .
  • Joseph Müller: Painter Felix Maria Diogg . In: Association for history and antiquities of Uri (ed.): Historisches Neujahrsblatt Uri . tape 2 , 1896, p. 3-22 .
  • Arnold Imholz: Felix Maria Diogg 1762–1834 . In: Association for history and antiquities of Uri (ed.): Historisches Neujahrsblatt Uri . tape 2 (1957/58) .
  • Walter Hugelshofer : Felix Maria Diogg. A Swiss portrait painter . In: Association for history and antiquities of Uri (ed.): Historisches Neujahrsblatt Uri . tape 2 . Max Niehans, Zurich / Leipzig 1941.
  • Mark Wüst / Rudolf Velhagen: Felix Maria Diogg (1762–1834). A portrait painter in times of upheaval , Zurich: Chronos 2019, ISBN 978-3-0340-1553-0 .

Web links

Commons : Felix Maria Diogg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cornel Dora: Felix Diogg. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
personal data
SURNAME Diogg, Felix Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Diock, Felix Maria; Dioc, Felix Maria; Diog, Felix Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss portrait painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1762
PLACE OF BIRTH Andermatt
DATE OF DEATH February 19, 1834
Place of death Rapperswil