Friedrich Gerhardt (painter)

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Viktor Friedrich Gerhardt (born September 13, 1828 in Biala , Galicia , on the border with Austrian Silesia , † December 15, 1921 in Düsseldorf ) was a painter and painting technician from the Bielitz-Biala language island . He was also called Fritz, mostly spelled Gerhardt, but also Gerhard or Gerhart.

Life

Gerhardt's father was a room and church painter from Halberstadt , his mother, née Reissmann, came from Dessau . Impoverished and with almost no training whatsoever, Gerhardt went out into the world in 1849 from Leschnitz in Upper Silesia, where his father had died, made a living and earned his living by cutting silhouettes and painting rooms.

In Dresden he attended the elementary drawing class at the Royal Academy in Dresden and learned so much that in Frankfurt am Main, where he arrived on foot, he was able to study under Edward von Steinle , Johann David Passavant and others at the Städelsche Kunstinstitut for some time . When his funds were exhausted, he went on a business trip again and ended up in Düsseldorf. Here Gerhardt was a student in the painting class of Karl Ferdinand Sohn and Theodor Hildebrandt in 1850/1851 . During the holidays, he worked hard and produced large numbers of portraits that he sold cheaply. In 1853 Gerhardt was a student of Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans and Gustave Wappers at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp . He returned to Düsseldorf on a business trip. From here he traveled on vacation to the Lower Rhine, where he painted many portraits in numerous cities, including the young Friedrich Krummacher .

At the suggestion of Johann Wilhelm Schirmer , he was accepted into the newly founded Grand Ducal Badische Kunstschule Karlsruhe in 1854 . He became the first master student of figure painting and also received his training in landscape. As a traveling art student, he wandered from Karlsruhe through the Bavarian countryside, to Tyrol, and Italy to learn in old art cities. In Tyrol he painted the abbot of the Fiecht monastery, among others . In Venice he was joined by Anselm Feuerbach and Karl Roux . In 1856 he came to Rome . Here he frequented August Noack , Salomon Corrodi , Hermann Ende and Karl Friedrich Fries . Together with Feuerbach and Roux, they went to Herculaneum , Pompeii and southern France. The old was sought, studied and researched, the old painting techniques were tried out. In 1857 Gerhardt stayed in Naples. The relations maintained in Naples with the Swiss officers of the Crown of Naples , as well as his subsequent stay from 1859 in Solothurn , had a lasting influence on Gerhardt's artistic creation and its development. He received numerous commissions for portraits and vedute . In the technique, oil painting predominated.

Around 1862 Gerhardt settled permanently in Düsseldorf. The following year he married Eva Bertha Auguste von Schlieben (1833–1916) from Rackith near Wittenberg on the Elbe , daughter of Friedrich August von Schlieben and Emilie Auguste, née. von Leubnitz, who in 1845 inherited the Niederfriedersdorf manor from her mother Auguste Sophie Friederike von Leubnitz, née von Polenz, but immediately transferred it to her son Hans Anton August von Schlieben (1814–1973). They had three children: Luise "Lise" Emilie, Bertha and Paul. From 1863 until his death in 1921 Gerhardt was a member of the Malkasten artists' association .

Wonder building

At Pempelforter Straße 80 in Düsseldorf, Gerhardt, registered here under Gerhard, built the largest studio building at the time , called “Wunderbau” or “Wunderburg”, which offered room for twenty-one artists. He had designed its plans and architecture himself. Important artists of the second half of the 19th century had their workshops in the “Wunderbau”, including Wilhelm Sohn , Benjamin Vautier , Fritz Neuhaus , Paul Nauen , Aloys Fellmann and Meinrad Iten . After the fire at the academy in Düsseldorf Castle (1872), the Royal Art Academy temporarily awoke to new life here, until the newly built art building was completed in 1879 and could be occupied.

“[…] The other half [the teachers] lived in the so-called“ Wunderbau ”, the strangely constructed building in the east of the city (Pempelforter Straße 80) belonging to the painter Fr. and outdoor galleries on different floors. The memory of this "miracle building" will remain forever linked to this time of the academy. "

- Karl Woermann

At that time, the “Wunderbau” was an idyllic artists' home in the middle of gardens in the Pempelfort district . In 1943 it was completely destroyed by the bombs of World War II .

Artist colors

Until his old age, Gerhardt tirelessly endeavored to research the old tried and tested techniques and colors and to implement the results for practical use. Initially, the painter didn't seem to have fared best until he turned more and more to the manufacture and sale of artist's paints. He had studied wall painting of Classical Antiquity and investigated the techniques of fresco painting . He invented the modern casein color , had it manufactured under license and thus achieved prosperity. Gerhardt claimed the rediscovery of the old mortar and the discovery of most of the newer tools for painting. He built up an artist paint factory that offered a wide range of Gerhardt's casein paints, such as casein marble powder paints, casein tempera (1890), casein binders (1892), petroleum paint (only for paints, 1892), des Further encaustic colors , oil colors and special flag, silk and tapestry colors. The casein technique was widely recognized as the best for both monumental painting and easel painting. The restoration of the frescoes by Alfred Rethel, which had been badly damaged by the extinguishing water, after the fire in the Aachen town hall in June 1883 was carried out in accordance with his procedure . He worked a lot with Johann Peter Theodor Janssen , Eduard von Gebhardt , Adolf Schill and others in Munich and Berlin. In 1911, when he was 83 years old, his friend and colleague Eduard von Gebhardt painted him.

Friedrich Gerhardt died in Düsseldorf at the age of 93. His son Paul Gerhardt then continued to run his father's art business. He took over the “Wunderburg” in 1919 and, supported by his wife as a skilled employee, set up extensive restoration workshops benefiting from his father's knowledge of painting techniques. He also worked for several years in Switzerland and in 1914 was called in as an expert and employee to secure the Böcklin frescoes in the Natural History Museum in Basel .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Bettina Baumgärtel , Sabine Schroyen, Lydia Immerheiser, Sabine Teichgröb: Directory of foreign artists. Nationality, residence and study in Düsseldorf. In: Bettina Baumgärtel (Hrsg.): The Düsseldorf School of Painting and its international impact 1819–1918. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86568-702-9 , Volume 1, p. 430.
  2. ↑ Friedrich Gerhardt from Galicia joins the eight first students enrolled at the opening under the direction of JW Schirmer in the second quarter.
  3. ↑ Address book of the Lord Mayor's Office Düsseldorf 1875, II. Evidence of every single numbered house of the city building and city extension : Pempelforterstraße 80 ( digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de ).
  4. ↑ On the history of the Düsseldorf Art Academy, an outline of its last decade and memorandum for the inauguration of the new building. Voss, Düsseldorf 1880 ( digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de ).
  5. ↑ M. Mayr's art-technical textbooks. Volume 5: Techniques of decorative & monumental painting and painting, with special consideration of modern wall painting and with practically useful information from the areas of color theory, color aesthetics, color composition, dye science etc. In: Kunststoffe- und Luxuspapier -Zeitung. Munich 1905, p. 69 f.
personal data
SURNAME Gerhardt, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gerhardt, Fritz; Gerhard, Friedrich; Gerhardt, Victor Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Biala , Galicia
DATE OF DEATH December 15, 1921
Place of death Dusseldorf