Franz Wulfhagen

Franz Wulfhagen (* 1624 in Bremen , † 1670 in Bremen) was a German painter , draftsman and etcher and is considered one of the most respected Bremen artists of the 17th century.

Life

Wulfhagen's grandfather Johann Wulfhagen acquired Bremen citizenship in 1588 after he moved to Bremen from the area around Deventer in the Netherlands.

Wulfhagen became a painter, went to Amsterdam and was a student with Rembrandt in the 1640s , whose style strongly influenced his work. From 1648 to 1657 he stayed in Breitenburg in Holstein. He leased a farm yard for his studio. He made numerous portraits for the imperial count Christian zu Rantzau . However, these are not the original new works, but copies of portraits of the German electors and the Swedish king. Presumably Wulfhagen had accepted this extensive order because it was heavily indebted in Bremen.

At the end of the 1650s, Wulfhagen returned to Bremen, where he worked as a painter, draftsman and etcher. In 1663 he was back in Breitenburg as a restorer to mend the Count's picture collection. His most famous painting was created shortly before his death, when he in 1669 for the sum of 95  marks on behalf of Bremer Council a monumental image of Wales painted that on the Lesum stranded was. The large whale picture with a size of 9.55 × 3.55 meters hung in the upper hall of the Bremen town hall for almost 300 years before it was first moved to the Überseemuseum and later to the Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven in 1965 . In 2008 it was returned to the Upper Town Hall after an extensive restoration .

Works (selection)

Portrait of the mayor Melchior Schweling. F. Wulfhagen, 1664, Focke-Museum Bremen

• Portraits of several emperors, formerly in the Wittheitstube of the Bremen town hall, later in the town hall , today partly in the senate hall of the new town hall.
• Wedding at Cana in 1660. Formerly in the commercial building , now in the Focke Museum in Bremen
• Adoration of the Magi . In the Bremen Cathedral
• The philosopher Baruch de Spinoza . Oil on canvas, 1664, 108 × 91.5 cm, private property, Paris
• Mayor Melchior Schweling . Oil on canvas, 1664, in the Focke-Museum Bremen (inv.no.1929.264)
• Margarete Schweling . Oil on canvas, 1664, in the Focke-Museum Bremen (inv.no.1929.265)
• Portrait of a woman with a fan . Oil on canvas, 1667, in the Focke Museum (inv.no.0401)
• Portrait of a man "DVBD" . Oil on canvas, 1667, in the Focke-Museum Bremen (Inv.No. 0.402)
• Satire on human follies . Whereabouts unknown
• Great whale picture . Oil on canvas, 1669, 955 × 355 cm, in the Bremen town hall
• Further pictures can be found in the Museum Huis van Gjjin in Dordrecht . The Bremen art gallery and the St. Anne's Museum in Lübeck also have several drawings by Wulfhagen.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Konrad Elmshäuser , Hans-Christoph Hoffmann, Hans-Joachim Manske (eds.): The town hall and the Roland on the market square in Bremen . Edition Temmen, 2002, ISBN 978-3-86108-682-6 , pp. 113 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Heinrich Tiedemann: The Breitenburg and its gardens through the centuries . Verlag Ludwig, 1999, ISBN 978-3-933598-01-1 , pp. 82-85 .
3. ↑ Konrad Elmshäuser, Hans-Christoph Hoffmann, Hans-Joachim Manske (eds.): World Heritage Application: the town hall and the Roland on the market square in Bremen . Schünemann Verlag, 2003, ISBN 978-3-7961-1848-7 .
4. ↑ Back in the Bremen Town Hall: The whale picture now adorns the Upper Hall again. Retrieved August 14, 2010 . 

literature

• Werner Sumowski: Paintings by the Rembrandt Students , Volume IV, Landau 1983, p. 2859, No. 1888.
• Jörn Christiansen (Hrsg.): Art and citizenship in Bremen . Hauschild Verlag, Bremen 2000, p. 154. ISBN 3-89757-063-7 .
• Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .
• Alfred Löhr: Paintings in the Focke Museum and their relationship with the Netherlands . In: Yearbook of Wittheit zu Bremen . Bremen 1997, p. 118 f.

Web links

Commons : Franz Wulfhagen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files