Georg Hall

Room in front of his easel in the forest of Fontainebleau, 1858

Georg Eduard Otto Saal (born March 11, 1817 in Koblenz , † October 3, 1870 in Baden-Baden ) was a German painter.

Life

Saal was a son of the Koblenz town clerk Otto Philipp Saal. After his first lessons with teachers who could no longer be identified, he was able to work as a draftsman in the reconstruction of the Stolzenfels ruins in 1836/37 . His first paintings were also created a little later. From 1842 to 1846 he studied landscape painting as a free student with Hans Gude at the Düsseldorf Academy under Johann Wilhelm Schirmer and, in the first year, the architecture class of Rudolf Wiegmann . During this time he traveled to the Eifel, the Lahn and the Black Forest. Gude and Andreas Achenbach are likely to have sparked his interest in Norway. In 1847 he went on a five-month study trip to Norway with August Leu and August Becker (Christiania, Sognefjord , Gudvangen, Hardangerfjord, Jotunheimen, Bergen). Then Wilhelm von Schadow accepted him as a master student. His pictures of Norway, now created in the studio, brought him fame and recognition.

In 1848 he moved to Heidelberg . In 1850 he went on another trip to Norway (Sognefjord, Jostedalsbreen). In 1852 he traveled to Switzerland, in 1853 to Bavaria. It is rather unlikely that he visited Greenland, which appears on paintings from 1852. He married Susanne Lang on October 16, 1852, with whom he had two children. In 1852/53 he moved to Baden-Baden , where he had his main residence until his death. In 1853 he received the title of Grand Ducal Court Painter of Baden. Since 1857 he had a second home in Paris . From here he came to Barbizon in 1858 , where, according to his own statement, he “really learned to see”. His third trip to Norway took place in 1854 (Romsdal, Hammerfest ) and took him to the North Cape. He also traveled to Savoy and England in 1864.

He died of a stroke. His grave is in the Baden-Baden city cemetery.

plant

Bear family in a mountain landscape , 1859

Nordic fjord landscape in midsummer

Saal is primarily known for his pictures of Norway painted in the studio, which express the greatness of the nature there. Here panoramic images from elevated points of view and waterfalls are his main subjects. However, he also painted landscapes from Baden and from his other trips. He often painted pictures of moonlit and midnight sun with dubious taste, which were popular at the time.

At first, Saal was influenced by the romanticism of the Rhine . His teacher Schirmer taught him the exaggerated representation of reality in terms of its romantic content, combined with careful composition and meticulous detailing. Saal's landscapes are always concerned with the effect, sometimes exaggerated and downright surreal. From 1854 onwards, Saal began to break away from the methods of his teacher and to turn more towards realism. His stay in Barbizon in 1858 brought a breakthrough, when he learned to appreciate plein air painting and unpretentious motifs. However, he never completely gave up the decorative and the attention to detail and continued to paint in the previous way, especially for sales.

What is less well known is that Saal also made numerous portraits, interiors, animal and genre pictures and caricatures.

literature

• Gabriele Häussermann: Life and work of the Baden court painter Georg Otto Eduard Saal (1817–1870) . Dissertation, University of Freiburg 2004 ( full text )

Web links

Commons : Georg Saal  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Georg Saal in the catalog of the German National Library
• Hall, Georg Eduard Otto. Biographical data and works in the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Dutch)
• Georg Otto Eduard Saal March 17th, 2015