Gustav Richter (painter)

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Gustav Richter, 1865, during a meeting of the Berlin Artists' Association . Graphic by Ludwig Löffler .

Gustav (Karl Ludwig) Richter (born August 3, 1823 in Berlin ; died April 3, 1884 there ) was a German painter.

Life

Richter studied at the Berlin Art Academy and was a student of Eduard Holbein . In 1844 he went to Paris for two years, where he was a student of Léon Cogniet at the EBA . In 1847 he went to Rome and returned to Berlin in 1849. Soon after his return, he was commissioned to create three friezes ( Baldur , the Valkyries and Walhalla ) for the Nordic hall of the Neues Museum .

In 1861 he went to Egypt on behalf of King Max II of Bavaria to make studies for the picture of the pyramid building that he had ordered for the Maximilianeum in Munich . In Constantinople he painted the portrait of Sultan Abdülaziz . In 1873 he was in the Crimea .

He first made a name for himself through the portrait of his sister, which The Awakening of Jairi Daughters (1856, Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin) increased. This picture, highly valued by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and his wife Elisabeth , was shown at various charity events before it was transferred to the National Gallery, for example in the hall of the Dr. Max Siegfried Borchardt in the Französische Straße 32, as the painter Felix Borchardt reports in his memoirs “Im Siebenmeilenschritt” in 1927. Already in this, Richter unfolded a color beauty that was unusual for the time , but even more in the Düsseldorf sense , and then later developed his coloring even richer.

He worked on the large picture of the pyramid structure, in which the individual modeled figures claim greater interest than the entirety of the somewhat theatrical composition, until 1873. The mural, which was once in the Maximilianeum in Munich, was destroyed in a bomb attack in 1944. Incidentally, his main field was not history painting , but the portrait, in which he was unsurpassed in Germany all his life due to the brilliance of the color, the delicacy of the modeling and the soulful conception. In particular, he achieved female portraits, of which that of Queen Luise (1879, Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne; numerous reproductions and even a terracotta figure after it are known), Empress Augusta (1878), Princess Carolath (1872) and of Countess Károlyi should be emphasized.
The most outstanding of his male portraits are: Kaiser Wilhelm I in full figure and half-length portrait, Prince Hans Heinrich XI. von Hochberg-Pless full-length in the uniform of the Oberstjägermeister (1875; preserved in the Schlossmuseum Pless / Muzeum Zamkowe w Pszczynie) and the painter Eduard Hildebrandt . His study heads, half-length portraits and family groups (the Egyptian, the Neapolitan fisherman's boy, the odalisque , girls from the Crimea, Evviva !, Mutterglück, Löwenritt) became very popular . He was royal professor and knight of the order Pour le Mérite .

His lavish hereditary burial was adorned with a grave monument designed by the architects Hermann Ende and Wilhelm Böckmann. Its building sculpture was created by the sculptor Otto Lessing and the corresponding portrait bust of the person buried here was created by the sculptor Reinhold Begas . The grave monument, which was badly damaged in the 1960s, is located in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery . In 2013 the grave was opened by EFEU e. V. modernly restored with facade design and casting of the bust in concrete with donations - also from descendants. The names of his sister and her husband are now appropriate "in memoriam" because they were both buried in this cemetery. The grille was restored in 2014.

family

Gustav Richter was married to Cornelie Meyerbeer , daughter of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer , since 1866 . His son Gustav Richter d. J. (1869–1943) was also a painter, as was his brother-in-law Friedrich Kraus (married to Dorothea Richter). Another son, Raoul Richter (1871–1912), became a philosopher.

literature

Web links

Commons : Gustav Carl Ludwig Richter  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files