Ferdinand von Harrach

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ferdinand Graf von Harrach (born February 27, 1832 in Rosnochau , † February 13, 1915 in Berlin ) was a German landscape , history and portrait painter .

Ferdinand von Harrach

Life

The Counts of Harrach come from an old Austro - Bohemian noble family . The father, Carl, grew up in Prague . After military service under the Austrian flag, he ran agriculture in Prussian Upper Silesia. Son Ferdinand had his aunt Auguste Countess von Harrach (his father's sister) as a godmother . After the death of Queen Luise, she was the second wife of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. He is also a godfather of Ferdinand Graf Harrach in the Catholic church bookParish office of Rosnochau in Upper Silesia . After private lessons on his father's estate , Ferdinand was sent to the educational institution in Schnepfenthal , whose father had also been a student. From 1847 Ferdinand attended the Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium in Breslau , which he left with the Abitur in 1851 . A trip to Italy with his parents and a longer stay in Rome encouraged Count Ferdinand Harrach to believe that he would be allowed to develop his artistic ambitions. But his father, who was considered a pioneer of modern agriculture in Silesia and had chosen him as the eldest son to succeed him as landlord, still expected a few exams from him.

But neither the natural sciences and law studies that he began in Berlin , nor an agricultural training that his father had “prescribed” for him, could change the young Ferdinand's mind. Even then he was painting and drawing in every free hour. In 1856/57 he did his military service with the cuirassiers in Breslau. After the father had had Stanislaus Graf von Kalckreuth , professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy examine his son's artistic work , and he had described the work as “excellent and promising”, the way was finally free for training as an artist. When Ferdinand began studying art in Düsseldorf in 1858, at the age of 26 he was already older than his fellow students .

Kalckreuth, who became his artistic foster father, received the offer in 1859 from Grand Duke Carl Alexander (Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach) to lead the grand ducal painting school in Weimar . Artists like Bonaventura Genelli and Friedrich Preller already worked in Weimar. Kalckreuth accepted the offer and also caused Count Harrach to move to Weimar. In addition to Arnold Böcklin and Franz Lenbach , Kalckreuth also won Arthur von Ramberg and Ferdinand Pauwels as teachers at the new school . Count Harrach made various trips in the following years, mostly to the Alpine regions and in 1862 to the British Isles . Numerous sketches and landscapes were the result. In Weimar, the Grand Duke liked to use him as a hunting companion . On War of 1866 Ferdinand Graf Harrach took a Prussian reserve officer in part. In 1868 he married Countess Helene Pourtalès and moved to Berlin . In the meantime he had made a name for himself as a painter. Some of his paintings had already been shown at exhibitions in Berlin and Dresden . Increasingly, the count also received portraits from personalities from the nobility. During a vacation stay on Norderney , the connection to the Crown Prince couple (Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, later Emperor Friedrich III and Crown Princess Victoria ), already known from Berlin society and through family connections, was intensified. During the Franco-Prussian War , Count Harrach was therefore given a job as an orderly officer on the staff of the Crown Prince. He was also involved in the drafts for the new German imperial coat of arms for the imperial coronation in 1871.

With the death of his godmother Auguste, Princess of Liegnitz, he was given the financial opportunity to acquire his own land. He bought the castle at Tiefhartmannsdorf ( Schönau / Lower Silesia), which, after a thorough renovation, was to become the new home of Count Ferdinand Harrach's family. Four of the eight children (four sons and four daughters) died in childhood. Like the events of the war, the death of the children also had an impact on the artist's work and the subjects of his paintings. In 1892 Count Harrach was appointed professor and in 1893 senator of the Royal Academy of Arts . In 1895 he received a large gold medal at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition . From 1895–1896 he was President of the Great Berlin Art Exhibition when the discussion about the Berlin Secession had already begun. Together with his wife he toured Egypt and the places of the Old and New Testaments in 1899 . The impressions of this trip continued to determine the biblical themes of his pictures. In 1912 the painter was honored with his own exhibition on his eightieth birthday. Ferdinand Graf Harrach was one of the last representatives of the classical art of painting. “Ferdinand painted every day of his life,” says the memories of his wife, Countess Helene Harrach. And the diplomat Gerhard von Mutius , a nephew of the Countess, put it this way: "His lifestyle fulfilled the concept of content-rich, lively and active leisure in the most beautiful sense."

The painter and sculptor Hans Albrecht von Harrach was his son.

Works (selection)

Emperor Max on Martinswand (illustration of the gazebo , 1903)
Moltke in the observatory in front of Paris ( heliogravure of the painting by Ferdinand von Harrach)
  • 1858–59 mountain landscape , morning lighting
  • 1860–61 Large mountain landscape , evening illumination
  • 1863 View of the sea from the island of Arran
  • 1866 portrait of Count Mörner
  • 1866–67 Emperor Max on the Martinswand
  • 1869 winter forest in hoarfrost
  • 1869-70 imprisonment Luther
  • 1871–72 In the vineyards of Wörth
  • 1871–72 The evening of Sedan
  • 1874 evening lighting on Lake Thun
  • 1875 Moltke in the observatory off Paris
  • 1876 Ice skating on Rousseau Island
  • 1876 portrait of my children (round picture)
  • 1877–78 proclamation of the Christmas message
  • 1880 portrait of the Minister Karl von Varnbuler
  • 1881 Cattle drive on the Wetterhorn
  • 1883–84 portrait of Count W. Pourtalès
  • 1885 portrait of Mr. B. vd Knesebeck
  • 1886 Christ on the Mount of Olives
  • 1887 Mary with the twelve year old Christ
  • 1888 portrait of the dead monarch Kaiser Wilhelm I.
  • 1891 portrait of the dead Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke
  • 1892 The storks arrive
  • 1893–94 portrait of Count Christoph Vitzthum
  • 1895 early spring in Lausitz
  • 1896 portrait of Professor Ludwig Passini
  • 1898 Storm in the high mountains
  • 1898 Midsummer bonfire in the Giant Mountains

literature

Web links

Commons : Ferdinand von Harrach  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Harrach, Ferdinand von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harrach, Ferdinand Graf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art, landscape, history and portrait painter
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Rosnochau
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1915
Place of death Berlin