Friedrich Christian Carstens

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Friedrich Christian Carstens (born February 1, 1762 in St. Jürgen ; † February 14, 1798 in Berlin ) was a German painter and etcher.

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Friedrich Christian Carstens was a son of the barley miller Hans Carstens (1721–1762) and his wife Christina Dorothea, née Petersen (1726–1769). His brother Asmus Jakob was a painter. Since his parents died a few years after their son was born, he grew up with assigned guardians, who found him an apprenticeship with the painter Carl Daniel Voigts in 1778 . In July 1781 his brother refused him a visit to this educational institution due to his own disputes with the Royal Danish Art Academy in Copenhagen and instead taught him himself. In 1783 the brothers traveled to Italy with Johann Jürgen Busch and reached Mantua , where they had to turn back due to lack of money. Afterwards they lived for some time in Zurich , where they made drawings for "Physiognomik" Johann Caspar Lavaters .

In 1784 the Carstens brothers lived in Lübeck , where they initially parted ways: Friedrich Christian Carstens went to Stralsund , Greifswald and Stettin , and earned little money as a portrait draftsman and drawing teacher. In 1790 he followed his brother to Berlin, where they designed Pompeian paintings together in Dorvill's house . Here he mostly worked as a copper engraver, but created only a few works. In 1791 the curator and minister Heinitz Friedrich Christian Carstens approved an apprenticeship in the plaster class of an academy, which the latter was to lead in 1792 as a substitute for his brother, who went to Rome on a scholarship . However, Carstens did not accept the position, but continued to work as an engraver on his own account.

Friedrich Christian Carstens left behind several well-known works and free mythological images, the artistic demands of which can be described as “moderate”. Carl Ludwig Fernow , who accompanied his brother Asmus Jakob and later described him biographically, described Friedrich Christian Carstens as a "half-talent" who had a broken character due to the disappointments he had experienced. Alfred Kamphausen wrote that Carstens “in the mythological compositions” did not match his brother's ethos and was not similarly emphatic. According to Kamphausen, he painted "bokulically" and followed Salomon Gessner rather than his brother.

Friedrich Christian Carstens died lonely in Berlin due to tuberculosis .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Death register Sophienkirche, No. 105/1798.
personal data
SURNAME Carstens, Friedrich Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1762
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Jürgen
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1798
Place of death Berlin