Gaston Lenthe

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G. Lenthe (by Franz Krüger )

Gaston Camillo Lenthe (born August 9, 1805 in Dresden , † December 27, 1860 in Schwerin ) was a German painter .

Life

Gaston Lenthe was born as the second son of the Mecklenburg painter, engraver and lithographer Friedrich Lenthe (1774-1851) and his wife Christina Magdalena, née Hesse, and had three siblings.

He grew up in an artistic environment and began drawing at an early age. Around 1810 the family moved to Ludwigslust and lived in a house on Schlossstrasse. There he was further taught by his father in art and science, because his father's workplace, the Carton-Fabrique, which together with the sculptor's workshop belonged to the construction company of the castle, was in the immediate vicinity .

From 1822 to 1824 he studied at the Dresden Art Academy with Moritz Retzsch , a very productive, but now almost forgotten, history and portrait painter. His father was also at his side in Dresden, because he had received permission from Grand Duke Friedrich Franz I to accompany his ailing wife to Dresden for a cure and at the same time to conduct his own studies there. The family lived in the Pirnaische Vorstadt , Neue Gasse 174 and stayed there until 1823.

In 1825 Gaston Lenthe went to the Berlin Art Academy with a grand ducal grant for his studio of Mahlerkunst and returned to Dresden in 1826. After a short trip to Karlsruhe and Munich in 1829, he went to the Mecklenburg court in Ludwigslust and Schwerin in 1830. There he worked with Carl Georg Schumacher until 1833 on the frescoes in the two large conference rooms of the new college building in Schwerin, which fell victim to a fire in 1865. After completing this work, Grand Duke Friedrich Franz I granted him security for future supplies on December 30, 1833.

A study trip to Italy, the dream trip of all artists, took Gaston Lenthe in 1834 via Venice, Verona, Milan and Florence to Rome, where he stayed until August 8, 1835. After returning from Rome in 1836 he got a job in Ludwigslust as a drawing teacher for Princess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin , and later also for Duke Wilhelm. In addition, with an annual salary of 200 thalers, he was assigned to his father as an assistant in the picture gallery.

In 1837 he moved to the new residence in Schwerin, where he lived first at Apothekerstraße 30 and later at Arsenalsstraße 14, a house on Pfaffenteich. On May 18, 1838 he was appointed court painter. Gaston Lenthe married the 19-year-old Pauline Juli Charlotte Piper, the second youngest daughter of the church council August Piper, and his wife Hedwig Sophie, née Boldt, from Kieve, a village south of the Müritz, on June 7, 1839. They had six children.

In the years that followed, Lenthe received numerous commissions for altarpieces in Mecklenburg churches. In 1840, for example, Grand Duke Paul Friedrich commissioned the painting of the altarpiece in Schwerin Cathedral with dimensions of 7 × 5.50 meters. Lenthe executed the altarpiece in Berlin in 1843 and 1844, where he sought the advice of Peter Cornelius . In addition to altarpieces and portraits, Lenthe painted various cardboard boxes on biblical subjects over the years, based on several commissions, which the glass painter Ernst Gillmeister used as models for church windows. So for the Marienkirche (Röbel) , the Georgenkirche in Waren, the Klosterkirche zu Dobbertin and the Schwerin Castle Church. After the death of his father in 1851, in addition to his work as a painter, he was again an assistant at the Grand Ducal Picture Gallery in Schwerin. In April 1852 Lenthe was commissioned to work out designs for the choir windows in the Schwerin Castle Church. In October 1852 he traveled with Ernst Gillmeister to the art exhibition in Berlin. The contract was not signed until May 21, 1853. The inauguration of the castle church took place on October 14, 1855.

After completing the altarpiece in the Schwerin Cathedral, Lenthe received another large order in the monastery on the advice of the Secret Archives Councilor Friedrich Lisch , who had been the conservator for art monuments of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin since 1853 and was entrusted with the monument preservation supervision of the interior restoration of the Dobbertiner monastery church Dobbertin . In a letter dated December 30, 1854 to the Dobbertiner monastery captain Julius Freiherr von Maltzan , Lisch advised that the altarpiece should also be painted by Lenthe, since he is the only experienced painter in the country in church art. As early as January 11, 1855, the monastery captain Freiherr von Maltzan wrote to Lenthe: Since we want to use as many local artists as possible to decorate the church, I hereby allow you to request that you take over the making of the local altar painting . This would also enable you to achieve the harmony you want between the altar and the glass windows. Lenthe submitted the first drafts for the winged altar and the five glass windows in the choir on January 30, 1855. With the design of the winged altar and the central choir window with the Lamentation of Christ , the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ , Lenthe created a magnificent work of art with the three related themes in different materials. For reasons of economy of the sovereigns, however, the predella was only completed by the history painter Gustav Stever and the four side choir windows by Ernst Gillmeister after the new monastery church was inaugurated on October 11, 1857 .

Together with several other Schwerin artists, Lenthe founded the Schwerin Association of Artists and Art Lovers in 1840 . Originally the artists employed in the construction of the Schwerin palace are said to have come together here for cheerful sociability. Initially, Lenthe was the association's secretary, later the chairman. For his work in Schwerin Castle , he was awarded the Silver Castle Medal by Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II at the inauguration in 1857 and the Order of the Red Eagle, IV class , from King Friedrich Wilhelm IV .

After Lenthe had suffered an insidious inner ailment , which he knew about from 1858, he died on December 27, 1860 in Schwerin. On December 31, 1860 he was buried with full honors in the cathedral cemetery in Schwerin, the church activities were performed by the court preacher Jahn. On January 8, 1861, the widow Pauline Lenthe turned to the Grand Duke to ask for support for her underage children, as she was not in a widow's fund. The proposal was positively supported by the Secret Cabinet Councilor Eduard Prosch and on February 1, 1869, Pauline thanked the Grand Duke that her four daughters had meanwhile been looked after.

Services

According to the painter colleague Friedrich Lange , Lenthe was a painter “made with his father's stick”. A judgment that, based on current research and assessment of Gaston Lenthe's performance, must be assessed as very subjective and inaccurate. Lenthe's extensive work, which consists of religious motifs, portraits, a smaller number of genre and a few landscape paintings, is strongly determined by a realism of the Nazarenes . In fact, their main representative, Peter von Cornelius, was the artistic advisor for the altarpiece in Schwerin Cathedral.

Lenthe's templates for church windows were carefully implemented at the time by the glass painter Ernst Gillmeister. Particularly noteworthy are the Christmas window in the Schwerin Cathedral and the middle choir window of the Dobbertin monastery church, both of which have already received high praise from contemporary critics.

Works

Christ group Marienkirche Röbel based on a design by Lenthe
  • Stained glass (drafts), all carried out by Ernst Gillmeister
    • Schwerin, Dom: Adoration of the Shepherds = Birth of Christ , 1847/48 (in the tower hall)
    • Schwerin, Castle Church , 1855, replaced in 1907; Preserved drafts in the castle museum
      • Window 1: Fall , Expulsion from Paradise , Promise of Abraham , Noah's Sacrifice , Abraham's Sacrifice , Moses with the Tablets of the Law , Archangel Michael
      • Window 2: Joshua and Gideon , Jephta and Samson , Eli and Samuel , David and Solomon , Jeremiah and Isaiah , Ezekiel and Daniel , Archangel Gabriel
      • Window 3: Birth of Christ , the twelve year old Christ in the temple , John the Baptist , baptism of Christ , angels with the Gospel
      • Window 4: Last Supper , Crucifixion , Trinity
      • Window 5: Entombment , the three Marys at the grave , resurrection of Christ , Mary Magdalene , angel with banner
    • Dobbertin, Klosterkirche : Resurrection , Ascension , God the Father , 1855
    • Waren (Müritz), St. Georgen : Moses and Isaiah , Entombment , Resurrection around 1856
    • Röbel / Müritz, St. Marien : east window
  • Ludwigslust, Stadtkirche : drafts for 2 silk chalice veils , 1860
  • City church Röbel / Müritz, St. Marien: drafts for 3 portal figures crucifix , Maria , Josef , 1850 (modeled by the sculptor Scholinus)

  • Altarpiece Cathedral Schwerin

  • Christmas window Schwerin Cathedral

  • Altarpiece Schelfkirche Schwerin

  • Altar painting in the Dobbertin monastery church

  • Schwerin Castle Church

Literature and Sources

literature

Unprinted sources

  • State Main Archive Schwerin
    • LHAS 2.12-1 / 26 Hofsachen, VI, court administration and court furnishings, art collections, offers and acquisitions.
    • LHAS 2.26-1 Grand Ducal Cabinet I., II., III.
    • LHAS 2.26-2 Court Marshal's Office personnel.
    • LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Provincial Monastery / Monastery Office Dobbertin. No. 3235. Negotiations and expert opinions on the redesign of the church in Dobbertin 1854–1857.
    • LHAS 10.9-L / 6 personal estate Lisch, Friedrich.
      • Visual arts. No. 137. Gustav Lenthe's proposal for the creation of a portrait of Duke Johann Albrecht, 1846–1872.
      • Conservation work. No. 182. Correspondence with court painter Gustav Lenthe from Schwerin on the church in Alt Röbel, 1847–1858, No. 193. Restoration of the church in Dobbertin, letters from the painter Gaston Lenthe, 1854–1858.
  • State Museum Schwerin
    • Kupferstichkabinett
  • Family archive Fries / Kramer, Duisburg
    • Gustav Kramer, diary entries (unpublished) 1834/1835. Life memories (without a date).

Web links

Commons : Gaston Lenthe  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Announcements from the old students of the Realgymnasium in Schwerin. No. 16, 1939, p. 450.
  2. ↑ LHAS 2.26-1 Grand Ducal Cabinet II. Personalia, 2709.72.
  3. ↑ a b c d Ingrid Lent: Gaston Lenthe. A Schwerin court painter . 2012, pp. 7–40
  4. ↑ LHAS 2.26-1 Grand Ducal Cabinet II. Personalia, 2708, 15.
  5. ↑ LHAS 2.26-2 Hofmarschallamt 5510, 424a.
  6. ↑ LHAS 2.26-1 Grand Ducal Cabinet II. Personalia, 2708, 43.
  7. ^ Ingrid Lent: Gaston Lente. A Schwerin court painter. 2012, p. 20.
  8. ↑ LHAS 2.26-2 Hofmarschallamt, 1383, 20.
  9. ↑ LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Landeskloster / Klosteramt Dobbertin. No. 3235 Remodeling of the church in Dobberin 1854 - 1875, 24.
  10. ↑ LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Landeskloster / Klosteramt Dobbertin. No. 3235 Remodeling of the church in Dobbertin 1854 - 1857, 29.
  11. ↑ State Museum Schwerin, Kupferstichkabinett, No. 2767 Hz.
  12. ↑ Ingrid Lent: Dedicated to religious art. Gaston Lenthe - a rediscovery. SVZ, MM August 12, 2005.
  13. ↑ Horst Alsleben : Choir window of the monastery church restored. SVZ Lübz March 14, 2005.
  14. ↑ Horst Alsleben: Luminosity behind protective glass. Mecklenburg church newspaper March 20, 2005
  15. ^ Anna Maria von Langermann: From the Schwerin art life. In: Mecklenburgische Monatshefte. 4, 1928, p. 263.
  16. ↑ LHAS 2.26-1 Grand Ducal Cabinet III. 142.
  17. ^ Announcements of the old students of the Realgymnasium in Schwerin No. 16, 1939, p. 450.
  18. ↑ Mecklenburgische Zeitung No. 1 of January 2, 1861.
  19. ↑ LHAS 2-26-1 Grand Ducal Cabinet II, Personalia, 2708, 77.
  20. ^ Letter in the archive of the parish of Plau am See
  21. ^ Ingrid Lent: Gaston Lenthe. A Schwerin court painter. 2012.
  22. ^ Deutsches Kunstblatt, Volume 8, 1857, p. 352.
  23. ↑ Friedrich Eggers : Christ's Last Supper with the disciples. Altarpiece for the church at Röbel in Mecklenburg by Gaston Lenthe. In: Deutsches Kunstblatt 3 (1852), No. 37 of September 11, 1852, p. 311/312.
personal data
SURNAME Lenthe, Gaston
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lenthe, Gaston Camillo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH August 9, 1805
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1860
Place of death Schwerin