Fritz Müller (painter, 1814)

Fritz Müller (* around 1814 ; † lost in the USA in 1861 ) was a German ship captain and marine painter in Bremen and the USA.

biography

The exact life dates of the ship's captain and later painter Fritz Müller are not known. Through the mediation of Burchard Christian von Spilcker , District President of Kurhessen-Waldeck in Arolsen , he came into the care of the teacher Dr. as a six-year-old orphan with no assets and allegedly without knowledge of his origin. phil. Ernst Georg Wilhelm Kellner (1774–1856) to Bremen . Kellner again sent his pupil to the school teacher Martin Gerhard Meierdirks in Blumenthal (Unterweser), where he was confirmed on April 8, 1830. Then Müller went to sea and later attended the navigation school in Bremen. Since 1837 he drove as a helmsman. In 1840 he acquired the citizenship of Bremen and was given his first command as a ship's captain. His travels mainly led to North America and Cuba. Müller had been a member of the Haus Seefahrt Foundation since 1842 and took part in the Schaffermahlzeit in 1854 . He bridged the period of the Danish naval blockade and the First Schleswig-Holstein War from May 1849 to 1852 as an auxiliary officer in the first German fleet under Admiral Brommy . In 1853 he took over his last command as captain, this time under the Hamburg flag. His trip took him to Rio de Janeiro / Brazil. Afterwards he seems to have only worked as a marine painter. He left his family in Bremen and went to the United States, ostensibly to join the Northern State Army, where his trail is lost during the Civil War after 1861.

family

In 1842, Captain Müller married Auguste Mathilde Hildenbrock (1817–1875), the daughter of a horse rider from Bremen, in whose house at Herdentor he had previously lived. His brother-in-law was previously on board with him as a cabin boy. From this marriage three daughters were born. In the Bremen address book he was last mentioned as a marine painter in 1856. 1857 no entry. From 1858 to 1861 Fritz Müller, Capt. Wife , then from 1862 to 1866 Mathilde Müller and from 1867 Fritz Müller Ww. Hildenbrock , she last lived in the seafaring yard .

Activity as a painter

As a landscape and marine painter, Fritz Müller can be traced back to his works signed with the year between 1846 and 1861. Presumably he was already instructed in painting by his Blumenthal foster father, teacher Meierdirks. Two views of Blumenthal have been preserved, as well as a picture of the Hildenbrock riding school in Bremen from 1846. Two views of Rio de Janeiro were exhibited in the Kunsthalle Bremen in 1854 . In addition, 17 pictures of ships from the years 1851 to 1861 are known in German museums and private collections . Two works can be verified so far in the USA

literature

Johann Focke : Fritz Müller, Bremische Biographie des Nineteenth Century , edited by Historical Society Bremen , Bremen 1912 (reprint Schünemann Verlag , Bremen 1976), p. 344 f.
Hans Jürgen Hansen: Deutsche Marinemalerei, Oldenburg and Hamburg 1977, p. 45. (here alleged place of death: 1861 Oldenburg)
Peter-Michael Pawlik: From the Weser to the world, Volume 2. The history of the sailing ships of the Weser and Hunte and their shipyards 1790 to 1926, Elsfleth - Brake - Oldenburg, Bremen 2003, pp. 32–35.

Individual evidence

↑ Ursula Feldkamp: From seaman to gold prospector. The report of the Bremen helmsman Friedrich Wilhelm Hildenbrock 1841–1850, in: Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv 17, 1994, pp. 159–214.
↑ The Focke Museum has at least four pictures of the ships from the hand of Müller, cf. Johannes Lachs: Ships from Bremen. Pictures and models in the Focke Museum , Bremen 1993, pp. 102, 129, 131 and 147. The Maritime Museum of the Oldenburg Lower Weser in Brake has at least two pictures, cf. Friedrich Carstens: Romantic seafaring. Treasures from a North German Maritime Museum, Oldenburg 1976, pp. 38 and 50. In addition, there are several pictures by Müller in the Heimatmuseum Schloss Schönebeck , including a view of Blumenthal, cf. Peter-Michael Pawlik: From the Weser to the World, Volume 2, Hamburg 2003, p. 32.
↑ Pawlik lists 11 ship pictures in his biographical article on Fritz Müller, in: Peter-Michael Pawlik: Von der Weser in die Welt, Volume 2, Hamburg 2003, p. 34.
↑ https://www.alamy.com/capture-of-the-savannah-by-the-uss-perry-fritz-mller-1814-description-german-painter-and-navy-officer-date-of-birthdeath -1814-after-1861-location-of-birth-blumenthal-authority-control-q20888900-viaf300471465-american-1814-1861-or-after-1861-112-capture-of-the-savannah-by-the-uss -perry-a14285-image188243010.html .

personal data
SURNAME	Müller, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German ship captain and marine painter
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1814
DATE OF DEATH	1861
Place of death	United States

[1] Ursula Feldkamp: From seaman to gold prospector. The report of the Bremen helmsman Friedrich Wilhelm Hildenbrock 1841–1850, in: Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv 17, 1994, pp. 159–214.

[2] The Focke Museum has at least four pictures of the ships from the hand of Müller, cf. Johannes Lachs: Ships from Bremen. Pictures and models in the Focke Museum , Bremen 1993, pp. 102, 129, 131 and 147. The Maritime Museum of the Oldenburg Lower Weser in Brake has at least two pictures, cf. Friedrich Carstens: Romantic seafaring. Treasures from a North German Maritime Museum, Oldenburg 1976, pp. 38 and 50. In addition, there are several pictures by Müller in the Heimatmuseum Schloss Schönebeck , including a view of Blumenthal, cf. Peter-Michael Pawlik: From the Weser to the World, Volume 2, Hamburg 2003, p. 32.

[3] Pawlik lists 11 ship pictures in his biographical article on Fritz Müller, in: Peter-Michael Pawlik: Von der Weser in die Welt, Volume 2, Hamburg 2003, p. 34.

[4] ttps://www.alamy.com/capture-of-the-savannah-by-the-uss-perry-fritz-mller-1814-description-german-painter-and-navy-officer-date-of-birthdeath -1814-after-1861-location-of-birth-blumenthal-authority-control-q20888900-viaf300471465-american-1814-1861-or-after-1861-112-capture-of-the-savannah-by-the-uss -perry-a14285-image188243010.html .