Heinrich Friedrich Füger

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Heinrich Friedrich Füger, mezzotint by Vinzenz Georg Kininger based on a self-portrait
The actress Josefa Hortensia Füger, the artist's wife , around 1797, Belvedere , Vienna

Heinrich Friedrich Füger (born December 8, 1751 in Heilbronn , † November 5, 1818 in Vienna ) was one of the best known and most influential German painters of classicism .

Life

Heinrich Friedrich Füger was the son of the pietistic pastor and later the highest ranking Heilbronn clergy (senior of the Evangelical Ministry of Heilbronn) Joseph Gabriel Füger. Füger began his training as a painter in 1764 with the court painter Nicolas Guibal at the art academy in Ludwigsburg . From 1769 he continued his studies in Leipzig with Johann Wolfgang Goethe's drawing teacher Adam Friedrich Oeser . He then went on a study trip to Italy and painted the frescoes in the Palace of Caserta in Naples, among other places . In 1774 he moved to Vienna . The English ambassador to the Viennese court, Sir Robert Keith, became his patron and patron. Through him he came into contact with the imperial family . From now on, his further education and career were promoted by the highest political authorities.

In autumn 1776 he received a scholarship to study in Rome for several years . His further artistic development was strongly influenced by Anton Raphael Mengs . From 1781 to 1783 he worked for the imperial family in the Naples area .

In 1783, State Chancellor Wenzel Anton Graf Kaunitz appointed him as Vice Director of the Vienna Academy , at that time one of the leading art academies in Europe. From 1791 until his wife's death in 1807, Füger was married to the actress Anna Josefa Hortensia Müller, the daughter of Johann Heinrich Friedrich Müller . In 1795 he became director of the academy, which flourished under his leadership. In 1806 he became director of the imperial picture gallery and palace captain in Belvedere Palace .

In 1780 Füger became a member of the Masonic lodge "Zum Palmbaum" in Vienna, and in 1786 the collecting lodge "Zur Truth". He was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Vienna Matzleinsdorf (today: Waldmüllerpark ).

Life's work

Heinrich Füger owes his reputation in the highest social circles at that time to miniatures and portraits . Later he turned to large-format history paintings and through them became one of the most important painters of classicism . His art had a pronounced political function, which manifested itself among other things in the glorification of certain persons of the imperial family, such as the example of Archduke Karl . For example, he painted the “ Apotheosis of Archduke Carl as the Savior of Germania” ( Army History Museum Vienna). Füger designed a cycle for wall coverings for the Archduke's study as War and Navy Minister or Generalissimo (1801–1809) in the old War Ministry Am Hof in Vienna, depicting in allegorical form the deeds of the imperial family, but above all the armed deeds of Archduke Karl Winner against the French showed. In 1813 Füger designed a medal for the Battle of Leipzig , which ended in a decisive defeat for the French in the wars of liberation .

The legacy of the Baroque era still lives on in Füger's work , and the striving for grace and elegance is also clearly recognizable. Later critics described his style of painting as eclectic and gave the style he represented the name Viennese baroque classicism .

In his artistic training, the academy he directed concentrated above all on the clearly defined form, on the sharp, clear outline of the figure - in line with the ideals of classicism. Accordingly, the drawing played a particularly important role in the training. The form took precedence over the color, the drawing took precedence over the painting. Role models from antiquity, combined with intensive history lessons, were central teaching topics. Anatomical specimens also served as important teaching material. Füger followed the academic teaching of the time that the young students first and foremost had  to copy the old masters - after engravings - from 6 in the morning until late in the evening. Mengs had claimed that art was better than nature and that as a result, as an artist, one should orient oneself to the ideals of the old masters - and in general to ideals that were better than nature. When a painter paints a sheet, it is not from nature, but from an idealized form of a sheet - in the academy.

Füger's role in society and art at that time can hardly be overestimated. He stood out so strongly that he was called the art pope of Vienna . An artist or architect who did not have a work permit with a protective certificate from the Vienna Academy had an extremely difficult professional position. The report that Johann Gottfried Seume gives in his “ Walk to Syracuse ” may serve as evidence of the importance that contemporaries accorded Füger . At the beginning of his journey from Saxony to Sicily, he visited Füger at Christmas 1801 in his studio in Vienna. He exuberantly describes Füger's latest classicist works, such as his painting “ Expedi secures! ”(“ Prepare the axles ”), an illustration of the verdict with which the legendary first consul of the Roman republic, Marcus Iunius Brutus (the elder), sentenced his sons to death who opposed the republic and for the restoration of the royal rule of Tarquin Superbus had conspired.

An older brother of the painter, Gottlieb Christian Füger, b. July 3, 1749 in Heilbronn, lost (died?) Around 1789, appeared as a “ Rosicrucian ”, theologically educated chemist, alchemist , pianist and composer. Through his brother Heinrich Friedrich he also had connections with the Viennese Freemasons, especially Otto Heinrich Baroness of Gemmingen zu Hornberg (1755-1836); he was master of the chair in the lodge he co-founded “Zur Wohlthkeit”, to which he introduced his friend Mozart .

Honors

Füger was an honorary member of the Munich Academy and the Milan Art Academy as well as a knight of the Order of the Württemberg Crown . In 1819 the Füger Prize was donated by a group of artists . The Golden Füger Medal , an award from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, is named after him. In 1876 Fügergasse in Vienna- Mariahilf (6th district) was named after him. The Fügerbrücke in Heilbronn, built in 2004 , was named after him in 2005.

Works (excerpt)

Anteros with key (after Anton Raphael Mengs )
  • Prince Nikolai Yusupov ( St. Petersburg , Hermitage ), 1783, oil on canvas, 112 × 87 cm
  • Marie Thérèse de Bourbon (St. Petersburg, Ermitage), 1783, oil on canvas, 110.5 × 88.5 cm
  • Elisabeth Wilhelmine von Württemberg ( Vienna Museum ), 1788, watercolor on ivory
  • The piano virtuoso Gottlieb Christian Füger, the artist's brother (Vienna, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere ), 1788/89, oil on canvas
  • Marie Louise, Empress of Austria ( New York City , Metropolitan Museum of Arts), around 1790, watercolor on ivory, 3.1 × 2.2 cm
  • Antiochus and Stratonike ( Stuttgart , Staatsgalerie ), around 1790, 80 × 97 cm
  • Self-portrait ( Kiel , Kunsthalle ), around 1790, oil on canvas, 109.5 x 87 cm
  • Death of Dido (St. Petersburg, Hermitage), 1792, oil on canvas, 154 × 220 cm
  • Johann Nepomuk Hunczovsky (Wien Museum, inv.no.56.419), 1794, oil on canvas, 96 × 74 cm
  • Heinrich Füger, the artist's son, at the age of 4 (Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts , inv. No. 1022), 1796, oil on canvas, 110 × 89 cm
  • The actress Josefa Hortensia Füger, the artist's wife (Vienna, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere), around 1797, oil on canvas
  • Franz Joseph Graf Saurau (Vienna, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere), around 1797, oil on canvas, 69 × 55 cm
  • Apotheosis of Archduke Carl: Rudolf von Habsburg wreaths the Archduke as the savior of Germany (Vienna, Museum of Military History ), around 1800, oil on canvas
  • János Batsányi ( Budapest , Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum ), 1808, oil on canvas, 68 × 51 cm
  • Execution of a Vestal Virgin (St. Petersburg, Hermitage), 1790–1815, oil on canvas, 53.5 × 95.5 cm
  • Self-portrait (Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie), after 1810, 51 × 41 cm
  • Christ as ruler of the world ( Johanneskirche in Obersulm - Affaltrach , Württemberg) 1812
  • Prometheus brings fire to mankind (Vienna, Liechtenstein Museum ), around 1817, oil on canvas, 221 × 156 cm
  • The Assassination of Caesar (Wien Museum), oil on canvas
  • The Death of Germanicus (Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts, Inv. No. 170)
  • Self-portrait (Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts, inv. No.1026)
  • The death of Virginia (Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts, inv. No. 1023)
  • Portrait of Franz Zauner (Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts, inv.no.1072)

gallery

literature

  • Constantin von Wurzbach : Füger, Friedrich Heinrich . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 5th part. Typogr.-literar.-artist publishing house. Establishment (L. C. Zamarski & C. Dittmarsch.), Vienna 1859, pp. 1–3 ( digitized version ).
  • Karl Weiß:  Füger, Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1878, pp. 177-179.
  • Ferdinand Laban : Heinrich Friedrich Füger, the portrait miniaturist . Grote, Berlin 1905.
  • Carl Wilczek: Heinrich Friedrich Füger. His paintings and drawings . Self-published, Vienna 1925.
  • Carl Wilczek: Füger, the classicist and great painter . In: Leo Planiscig (ed.): Yearbook of the art historical collections in Vienna, new series . tape II . Vienna 1928, p. 329-354 .
  • Max Schefold:  Füger, Heinrich Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 686 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Steffi Röttgen: Heinrich Friedrich Füger . In: Zbornik. Za umetnostno zgodovino Archives d'histoire de l'art, Nova Vrsta XI – XII . 1974, p. 323-333 .
  • Ingeborg Schemper-Sparholz: The establishment of classicism in Vienna. Friedrich Heinrich Füger and Franz Anton Zauner as scholarship holders with Alexander Trippel in Rome . In: Directorate of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich (Ed.): Journal for Swiss Archeology and Art History . tape 52 , issue 4, 1995, p. 247-270 .
  • Robert Keil: Heinrich Friedrich Füger (1751–1818) - Only a few are allowed to see the light of truth . Amartis, Vienna 2009 (monograph with catalog raisonné, 750 illustrations, 100 of which are in color).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Austrian Freemason Museum. Rosenau near Zwettl . Catalog, ed. from the Museum Association of Rosenau Castle. Vienna 2005. p. 110.
  2. ^ Claudia Reichl-Ham: The year 1809 as reflected in the objects of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum , in: Viribus Unitis. Annual report 2009 of the Army History Museum, Vienna 2010, p. 107.
  3. ^ L. Forrer: Biographical Dictionary of Medallists . Füger, K. Volume VII. Spink & Son Ltd, London 1923, p. 332 .
  4. ↑ See Johann Gottfried Seume: Walk to Syrakus in 1802. Insel Taschenbuch 3483. Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig 2010. pp. 38–41. The Roman source for the judging scene is found in Titus Livius , Ab urbe condita, book 2, chapter 5; the Latin and German text can be found in the article under "Weblinks". The pithy “expedi secures!” Is not yet to be found in Livius.
  5. ↑ Cf. Reinhard Breymayer : Freemasons at the gates of the Tübingen monastery: Masonic influence on Hölderlin? In: Tubingensia. Impulses for the city and university history. Festschrift for Wilfried Setzler on his 65th birthday . Edited by Sönke Lorenz and Volker Schäfer. Tübingen 2008, pp. 355–395, here pp. 383–391: “The Tübingen medical student and homme de lettres Gottlieb Christian Füger as a“ Rosicrucian ”, theologically educated chemist, alchemist, pianist and composer”. Cf. the portrait of the piano virtuoso Gottlieb Christian Füger, the artist's brother (Vienna, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere ), 1788/89, oil on canvas, created by HF Füger .
  6. ^ Art prizes in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  7. ^ Füger Medal on the website about Peter Proksch , 2011.
  8. ↑ http://www.zeno.org/Kunstwerke/B/F%C3%BCger,+Heinrich+Friedrich%3A+Portr%C3%A4t+des+F%C3%BCrsten+Nikolai+Yusupov
  9. ↑ http://metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/110000862
  10. ↑ Otto Friedrich: Evangelical churches in the deanery Weinsberg - picture reading book ; ed. Ev. Dean's Office Weinsberg, 2003, page 4 f
  11. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.liechtensteinmuseum.at

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Friedrich Füger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Füger, Heinrich Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1751
PLACE OF BIRTH Heilbronn
DATE OF DEATH November 5, 1818
Place of death Vienna