Gustav Metz

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Gustav Metz, portrayed by Hugo Bürkner (1853)

Gustav Ferdinand Metz (born October 29, 1816 in Brandenburg an der Havel , † October 30, 1853 in London ) was a German painter and sculptor .

Life and work

The son of a material goods dealer completed a commercial apprenticeship, but then chose an artistic career path. His inclinations initially led him to sculpture, which he learned from Christian Daniel Rauch in Berlin and Ernst Rietschel in Dresden. As a result, in 1836, the only sculpture with which Metz - only 20 years old - went public: the figure of a fisherman's boy.

Gustav Metz changed his subject in Dresden and studied painting with Eduard Bendemann at the local Academy of Arts. Like his academic teacher, he initially devoted himself to historical subjects, for example in his painting “The Capture of Count Helfenstein”, with which he took part in the art exhibition in Hanover in 1846. It was bought by King Ernst August I as "the best of the pieces of this genre that have been here this year" .

Gustav Metz: "The Death of Rachel"

He also created religious representations, such as "The Death of Rachel" based on an Old Testament story. This painting was shown at the Berlin Academy Exhibition in 1848. Metz had painted it in Rome, where he had been since 1845. There he also dealt with landscape studies.

His actual employment as an artist, however, was portrait painting. For this purpose he went to London, where he received orders from German families living there. Gustav Metz died in London at the age of 37 of cholera.

In 1900 his family donated most of the artistic estate of Gustav Metz to the Wredow School of Drawing in Brandenburg an der Havel. Gustav Metz's estate is currently in the Brandenburg City Museum on the Havel and is being gradually recorded on behalf of the Wredow School of Drawing.

literature

  • A [rthur] Schulz: The Wredow Art Collection. Its origins, its meaning and a guide to its treasures . Brandenburg / Havel 1922, pp. 14-16

Web links

Commons : Gustav Metz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Domstiftsarchiv Brandenburg, baptismal register St. Katharinen 1814–1830, baptisms year 1816, no. 149, p. 177, signature: BKa 123, 12/599
  2. ↑ Morgenblatt for educated readers, art supplement v. June 11, 1846, p. 120
  3. ^ Friedrich von Bötticher, Painters' Works of the 19th Century, No. 4
  4. ↑ Schulz, p. 16
  5. ^ Administrative report of the city of Brandenburg 1899/1900, p. 5
personal data
SURNAME Metz, Gustav
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Metz, Gustav Ferdinand (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1816
PLACE OF BIRTH Brandenburg on the Havel
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 1853
Place of death London