Hans von Hembsen

Hans von Hembsen († before 1673 in Reval ) was a German painter. It was effective in Lübeck, Danzig and Reval.

Hans van Hembsen. Session of the Lübeck Council Court, 1625. St. Annen Museum, Lübeck

Life

About the painter Hans von Hembsen (Hemssen, Hemessen, Heinsenn - the name occurs in the most varied of forms) it is reported that he was "born in Lübeck of honest, honest parents " and that he learned to paint from Philipp Röseler after completing his Had been employed as an apprentice in Danzig and Königsberg.

On March 15, 1616, he sent an application signed by him as a “Conterfeier und Mahlergesell” to the Lübeck Council with the request for admission as a free master and reported how he “ grew up in painting, the art of counterfacturing and especially in the pictur of landscapes ” , followed the most capable artists in foreign countries “ and devoted all diligence to learning and experiencing more than other common painters ” . He also asks "to protect him against the magistrates who refuse him acceptance into office if he does not apprentice to one of them again or marry a master's daughter". At the same time, he recommends himself to the council if the latter, for example, “should be given new ones or rooms with artificial land tables to be exorcised” , as he has been reported.

The magistrates, on the other hand, address the advice in a supplic of April 10, 1616, not to admit Hembsen as a free master because three of them, like Arnt Raetke, Elias Meyer and Jacob Reussborg, are already admitted. Hembsen's request was rejected and only on April 26, 1625 did he renew the same. With this request, he presented to the Lübeck Council at the same time a painting in which the former Lübeck city archivist Paul Ewald Hasse wanted to recognize the image of the audience hall  in the St. Annen Museum Lübeck (formerly in the auditorium of the town hall). It represents this hall after its renovation in 1573 and, as accessories, a session of the higher court . The painter's request is now granted. On June 16, 1625, he was granted the right to work as a painter in Lübeck, but with the restriction that he should only be allowed to paint "Conterfeien, Landschafften und Historienn, but with his own hands" and only keep one boy may, "who judges him to dye and reiffet"; nor should he have the right to “teach Mahler art”.

However, these regulations are neglected by him. Instead of the boy he was allowed to do, he soon kept a journeyman whose immediate release was ordered on April 5, 1626 and again on September 5, 1627 with a penalty of five thalers. Hembsen has meanwhile married and soon sees a large number of offspring around him, but finds himself in great distress due to illness and weak eyes that prevent him from painting. On March 10, 1629, he therefore turned to the council with the request to allow him to keep a journeyman in his desolate situation or, if this request had to be refused, to give him the completed customs post at the castle gate . He was given permission to work with a journeyman, and besides him on April 15, 1629 also the free masters Jost Delaval, Georg Starck and Jacob the Dutch. However, on April 10, 1635, the violation of the regulation still attracts a reprimand from the betting court.

The epitaph painted by Hembsen of the mayor of Lübeck Lorenz Möller , who died in 1634 and a relative of the painter , is marked with the full name and the year . In addition to a portrait of the deceased, it contains a resurrection and a crucifixion of Christ, which are praised by both Hasse and Johann Funk in his “Strangeness of the Marienkirche zu Lübeck” as good work, through which he, in addition to his picture of the audience hall, as Hasse am The conclusion of his treatise says that if not an outstanding, at least an honorable place in the history of painting is secured in Lübeck.

In 1637 Hembsen was already in Reval, where he lived at the cathedral and worked with a journeyman. Here, too, the battle with the magistrates breaks out. On December 11th of this year, he sent a petition to the council to protect him, the punter, from the hatred, anger and evil attacks of the city officials. The office, on the other hand, complains about him as a foreign "contra celebration" who stole the bread from the local masters because he "shuffled around with painted pieces in people's houses to sell them" . The painters Pawel Blum, Peter Wicherts and Hans Blum also complain against him in the same way. Hembsen complains that the magistrates are persecuting him and his journeyman Hans Deters as Bönhasen .

Before he came to Reval and took up residence in the cathedral, he had worked as a painter in Lübeck for 18 years, with 10-5 journeymen. (The numbers are taken quite arbitrarily, as you can see.) He then names Jacob Reussburgk, Hans Clausen (this painter seems to have worked as a journeyman at Hembsen in Lübeck in 1632), Hinrich Bolandt and Jürgen Nedder as other freelancers in Lübeck; in Hamburg: Jacob Rossav, Samuel Wolters, Dieterich Ditmars; in Danzig: Salamon Wegener, Barthel Strobel, Lambrecht van Zweenhusen and Jacob Mahlers. - The Council's decision on this matter does not exist.

Nothing else is known about him here. Even work that could be traced back to him has not yet been proven. One hears of his death only in a request from the Lübeck official painters to the local council from the year 1673. There it says of him: “He grind, while he intended to intervene in our office, and to melt our food, nevertheless this city Reumen, to Reval draw and die there in misery ”.

His son and successor in art, Albrecht von Hembsen, is met in 1646. It is said of him that he painted many portraits, especially of aristocratic people, for whom 4 to 6 Reichsthalers were paid for the piece. On the advice of “two good men” , he entered the business of the widow of the painter Peter Wichers (Wicherts), one of his father's persecutors, and was to receive half of all income as wages. The widow did not keep her promise, however, and Albrecht therefore filed a complaint with the council on August 28, 1646. In this letter of complaint, he says that he spent a year and 20 weeks painting on the pulpit, but was badly rewarded and therefore stopped working. In addition to a small tablet, he also made the epitaph of the Obersten Rechenberch and received only 8 Reichsthaler for it, although the Wichers received 40 Reichsthaler for it.

It can no longer be proven which pulpit is being referred to here. The paintings on the pulpit of the Nicolaikirche are inscribed in 1624 by Daniel Blonie, those of the cathedral church are of very inferior quality and probably came into being after the fire of 1684. The figures of the apostles on the pulpit of the Holy Spirit Church donated by Mayor Lohne seem to belong to an earlier time, the donor died on March 29, 1626. The Rechenberch epitaph is no longer there; it was probably destroyed in the cathedral fire in 1684.

Albrecht von Hembsen and his wife died of the plague in 1657.

literature

• Wilhelm Neumann (ed.): Lexicon of Baltic artists. Riga: Jonck & Poliewsky 1908, pp. 65f
• Hembsen, Hans von in Thieme-Becker : General Lexicon of Fine Artists , Volume 16, Leipzig 1923, p. 363

Web links

Commons : Hans von Hembsen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Neumann, W: The painters Hans and Albrecht von Hembsen , in: Meeting reports of the Society for History and Archeology of the Baltic Sea Provinces of Russia from 1898. Printed by WF Häcker, Riga 1899. pp. 52 to 55.
• Hasse, P: The painter Hans von Hemssen and his picture from the audience hall of the town hall , in: Journal of the Association for Lübeck History and Antiquity. Volume 7, Issue 1. Edmund Schmesahl, Lübeck, 1894. pp. 312 to 327.