Georg Wilhelm Issel

GW Issel, around 1820 (portrait by Peter Rittig )

Georg Wilhelm Issel (born October 13, 1785 in Darmstadt , † August 15, 1870 in Heidelberg ) was a German painter , Darmstadt court advisor and art historian .

Life

origin

Georg Wilhelm Issel was born as the son of the Darmstadt master cloth maker Johann Franz Issel and the former servant Maria Friedericka Dorothea Issel (née Bürger ). His mother previously worked as a servant for the Darmstadt Landgrave and later Grand Duke Ludwig I of Hesse . In the family chronicle it is noted that Johannes Issel is not the biological father, but the Hereditary Prince Ludwig I himself. This circumstance would explain the lifelong assignments of the Darmstadt court to Issel.

education

The upbringing was taken over by the mother, as the social father Johannes Issel died in 1787. He probably received his school education in Darmstadt. In April 1803 he was enrolled as a law student at the University of Giessen . In Höchst and Frankfurt , where he lived from 1804, he trained himself as a draftsman and painter, probably supported by the Viennese landscape painter Anton Radl .

During this time, a number of literary attempts arose, for example a tragedy about Countess Platen, the mistress of Elector Ernst August von Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Hanover , which was performed once in Frankfurt but failed.

Professional career and study trips

From 1810 Issel traveled through the Odenwald and to Heidelberg . At that time he held the title of Chamber Secretary . He made the acquaintance of Friedrich Cropp and Heinrich Voss , son of the poet Johann Heinrich Voss . He also got to know the then 15-year-old Carl Philipp Fohr and took him to Darmstadt, where Fohr lived with him from 1811. In 1814 Issel made the acquaintance of Graf Platen . In the same year Issel went on a trip to Tyrol with the animal painter Max Josef Wagenbauer . He was also friends with the landscape painter Simon Warnberger and the portraitist Joseph Karl Stieler .

Issel then traveled to Paris , from 1815 he traveled to Switzerland , then to the Black Forest , then to Constance and then it took him to Lake Lucerne and Lake Zurich . From October 1816 he settled for some time in Konstanz, where he frequented the local artist community, including Johann Jakob Biedermann , Robert Eberle , Lorenz Schönberger , Friedrich Mosbrugger , August von Bayer and Ernst Baer .

He was interested in the establishment of museums for all citizens and wrote a memorandum for the Grand Duke in 1817: About German People's Museums 1817. Some pious words about museums of German antiquities and art .

On March 15, 1818 Issel was appointed councilor. Further trips followed to Berlin , Dresden and Thuringia , where he met Goethe in July 1818 . In 1819 Issel settled in Darmstadt and began buying art objects for the Darmstadt court. He was hoping for a job as a gallery inspector, but this was awarded to the painter Franz Hubert Müller . In 1820 he spent in Heidelberg, where he tried to buy works by the late Carl Philipp Fohr ; In total he brought together 255 sheets, with which he founded today's Darmstadt collection of Fohr's work.

Issel moved with his wife to Konstanz in 1820, where he was hoping for a job as a conservator. However, this wish was opposed to the interests of the Darmstadt cabinet secretary Ernst Christian Friedrich Schleiermacher , who feared Issel’s competition, which led to a rift.

From 1827 to 1835 Issel was the landowner of the Egg house opposite the island of Mainau . In Constance, Issel was able to gather a circle of artists, including Annette von Droste-Hülshoff and, for a short time, Ludwig Uhland . He was also active in the city archives of Konstanz and probably published as editor Der Konstanzer Sturm in 1548 by Georg Vögeli and Christoph Schultheiß .

GW Issel in 1865

In 1836 Issel moved to Freiburg im Breisgau . From there he traveled through the Black Forest and made paintings with a focus on the Glottertal . In 1844 he moved to Heidelberg, where he stayed until his death. Through Henriette Feuerbach , who often visited him in Heidelberg, Issel also got to know the painter Anselm Feuerbach , whose mentor he became.

family

Issel married Victoria von Chrismar on July 6, 1820. She was the daughter of Joseph von Chrismar , city director of Freiburg. He had six children: Friederike (born 1821), Joseph (born 1822), Klara (born 1823), Karl (born 1825), Anna (born 1827) and Viktoria (born 1832).

plant

Above all, Issel painted landscapes in a realistic manner, mostly without staffage . The Black Forest (especially the Glottertal) and Lake Constance were preferred motifs.

• View from Leutstetten over the undulating terrain between Seeshaupt and Pähl onto Lake Starnberg (1814)
• View of Habach in Upper Bavaria (1814)
• St. Etienne du Mont (1815)
• Black Forest meadow with stream (1815)
• Lake Constance landscape with a view of the Mainau (1815)
• Part of the Triberg waterfall (1815)
• Moonlight Landscape (1819)

literature

• Karl Lohmeyer: From the life and letters of the landscape painter and councilor George Wilhelm Issel 1785-1870 . Heidelberg 1929.
• Almuth Heidegger: Georg Wilhelm Issel (1785-1870). Monograph and catalog of works by a landscape painter of the 19th century . Munich 1993.
• Sylva van der Heyden: Issel, Georg Wilhelm , in: Bénédicte Savoy, France Nerlich, France (ed.): Paris apprenticeship years. A lexicon for training German painters in the French capital . Volume 1: 1793–1843 , Berlin / Boston 2013, pp. 124–126.

Web links

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

• Issel, Georg Wilhelm. Hessian biography. (As of October 13, 2019). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).