Fritz Kamphövener

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Fritz Kamphövener (born October 20, 1834 in Rendsburg , † March 4, 1865 in Cairo ) was a German portrait and history painter .

biography

Kamphövener was the eldest child of the Schleswig higher judge Hans Adolph Kamphövener (1808-1856) and his wife Sophie, née Broekel, and brother of Louis von Kamphövener , later a Prussian general and adviser to the Ottoman army. The family lived in a damp forest keeper's house in Düsternbrook near Kiel after the head of the family had lost his job as a result of the failed Schleswig-Holstein uprising (1848-1851). In 1853 she moved to Ehrenbreitstein near Koblenz , where her father was given a new position as a legal advisor.

Fritz attended high schools in Schleswig and Kiel. Because he wanted to become a sculptor, his teacher Theodor Rehbenitz recommended him to his Roman companion Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld , now professor at the Dresden Art Academy . From July 1852 Kamphövener was a student of the sculptor Ernst Rietschel at the Dresden Academy and boarder in the Schnorr von Carolsfeld house. His art friends included the sculptor Adolf Donndorf from Weimar and the painter Ernst Hemken from Jever.

When Kamphövener intended to switch from sculpture to painting, he went to the Antwerp Art Academy in 1856 , which at that time enjoyed an international reputation. Since the father died in 1856, the mother received one-time financial support for her son. Kamphövener became a pupil of Joseph van Lerius , who attested him enormous progress.

From 1859 Kamphövener was based in Kiel as a portrait painter and demonstrated his skills for the first time with a portrait of the poet Klaus Groth . He joined the Kieler Künstlerverein, which was founded in 1857, and took an active part in the festivals in honor of Albrecht Dürer and Friedrich Schiller in Kiel in 1859 and 1860.

A lack of commissions, the artist's oath, but also criticism of his works led him to study with Eduard Bendemann and Andreas Müller at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1860 , where he stayed until the beginning of 1862. Several portraits took him to Gut Deutsch-Nienhof on Westensee near Kiel, where he portrayed members of the Heidemann-Heespen family. A follow-up order took him to Gut Waterneverstorf. In 1864 he applied in vain for a Prussian scholarship for a stay in Rome with a painting Prometheus tied to a rock .

Since Kamphövener had been sickly since his youth and probably suffered from consumption, he sought recovery in the south. With the help of Prince Carl of Prussia , who, in his capacity as Lord Master of the Order of St. John , arranged for him to stay in the St. Johns Hospital in Cairo, he set off. He carried his travel treasure in the form of a few gold coins in a pouch around his neck day and night. The weight had caused a purulent boil that had to be cut open after his arrival in Cairo, but became infected, so that Kamphövener died at the age of 31.

Works

  • Portrait of Klaus Groth , 1859, oil on canvas, 78 × 64 cm. Klaus Groth Museum , Heide
  • Portrait of Clara Heidemann-Heespen, oil on canvas, 81 × 65 cm. Gut Deutsch-Nienhof.

literature

  • Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: Fritz Kamphövener. In: Ders .: Kiel artists - art life and artist trips 1770–1870. Heide 2014, ISBN 978-3-8042-1406-4 , pp. 307-324.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Strohmeier: The memories of Louis von Kamphövener Paşas, military advisor to Sultan ʾAbdülḥamīds (1882–1909) . In: Hendrik Boeschoten, Heidi Stein (Hrsg.): Unity and diversity in the Turkish world. Materials from the 5th German Conference on Turkology University of Mainz . Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-447-05476-8 , p. 334 ( Google Books )
  2. ↑ Finding aid 212.01.04 Student lists of the Art Academy Düsseldorf , website in the portal archive.nrw.de ( Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen )
personal data
SURNAME Kamphövener, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1834
PLACE OF BIRTH Rendsburg
DATE OF DEATH March 4, 1865
Place of death Cairo