Heinrich Fricke

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Heinrich Johannes Theodor Fricke (born September 25, 1860 in Hamburg , † January 12, 1917 in Lübeck ) was a German painter and architect .

life and work

Heinrich Fricke was born in Hamburg as the son of Diedrich Heinrich Friedrich Fricke and his wife Catharina Dorothea Sophie Fricke born. Meyer born. After finishing school and completing an apprenticeship as a bricklayer, he worked in an architectural office in Stade in 1879.

In 1880 Fricke moved to Munich to swap architecture for painting. He studied at the Technical University of Munich with Joseph Bühlmann, who mainly dealt with perspective and structural theory, and at the Munich Art Academy with the Hungarian painter Alexander von Wagner history painting . He became Wagner's favorite student. But he felt particularly drawn to and influenced by Wilhelm Leibl . Under his influence, portraits like his sister's in-laws were created.

Fricke was already awarded medals in the nature class and the technical painting class. He associated with the painter and draftsman for applied arts Otto Eckmann , who also studied with Wagner from 1885 to 1890, and with the painter and graphic artist Lovis Corinth , who painted a portrait of Fricke in 1886.

Many smaller studies, which arose on his vacation trips, in which he recorded old buildings and street signs with his understanding and painterly skill, revealed that he came from the art of architecture. Bühlmann, who was also his teacher in the painterly perspective and was currently painting a panorama of Rome in classical times with Wagner, noticed him and persuaded him to work with him. Both were so enthusiastic about their assistant that after the success of the panorama "Naples" and "The Battle of Trafalgar" were also painted and Fricke, which he considered a stroke of luck, had to remain as an employee.

Fortunately, Fricke came to Merano by chance in 1890 , where nature and a cozy home captivated him so much that he stayed. Ida Borgfeldt took him in in 1892 in her stately home in the shadow of a mighty cedar , the Borgfeldthof . In his artist workshop there, colorful landscapes, Italian views, garden pictures and portraits were created in the Impressionist style . However, it also appealed to him to beautify the house. Here he became a builder and horticultural artist again and put his stamp on the house inside and out. So he had vine and rose arbors laid out in the garden and thus also expressed his painterly feelings architecturally.

Since 1896 Fricke had been friends with the landscape and portrait painter Louis Eysen, who also lived in Merano . Both created mostly landscape pictures, but hardly made them accessible to the public.

Trinity Church in Arco (Italy)

After Fricke had made a name for himself as an architect with the construction of the imposing Merano Villa Burgund in neo-baroque style in 1896, he was entrusted with the design of the Evangelical Trinity Church in the spa town of Arco on Lake Garda . It was to become the first Protestant church in what is now Trentino . The church, designed in an eclectic style, was his work from the spire to the last door handle and, as an architectural gem of the first order, was adapted to the peculiar landscape of Arcos.

Then Fricke wanted to turn back to painting, but began to doubt himself. He thought he had not kept pace with his painter friends, many of whom had already been given illustrious names. He had a warm friendship with the poet and writer Christian Morgenstern , who came to Merano in 1906 ; he was the best man at Morgenstern's wedding with Margareta Gosebruch on March 7, 1910. However, in order to become a new person, he felt it was necessary to come into a new environment. Farewell to Tyrol was not easy for him, however. He was attached to Meran and Runkelstein Castle . He was once allowed to show Empress Friedrich around the castle with the princesses. She had spoken to him without his knowing who the simply black-clad lady with mighty yellow leather gauntlets was. After Ida Borgfeldt's death in 1908, Fricke left Merano at the end of March 1910 as a sick man.

Almost shy of people, he did not want to get together with his former friends - at least initially - and went to Lübeck. He had liked it so much here when he was young, and his sister, to whom he loved so much, lived here. But even there he did not join anyone. He avoided new acquaintances. Fricke mainly painted northern German landscapes, e.g. B. “Allee bei Travemünde” (1912/1913, Hamburger Kunsthalle ) and also the architectural motifs familiar to him, such as the interior “Marienkirche zu Lübeck, pillar epitaph”, which was lost until 2010 and has since been in a north German private collection. At its center is the monumental epitaph of Lübeck councilor Hermann Fock (e), built in 1703 and destroyed in 1942.

Although he began to fear for his financial situation for no real reason, he did not discuss it with anyone. He suffered more than others from the lack of nutrition as a result of the First World War , and his health deteriorated until he died.

Fricke organized his artistic estate while still alive. Some of the pictures were intended for the Hamburg graphic artist and sculptor Herbert Meyer (1891–1952), who later called himself Herbert Mhe . This also included - as evidenced by a handwritten note on the back of the painting - the interior mentioned.

Fricke died at the age of 56 in Lübeck and was buried in the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg. In June 1918, thirteen oil paintings and watercolors by him were shown in the Katharinenkirche in Lübeck as part of a memorial exhibition.

Until the exhibition in Lübeck in 1918, Fricke was almost unknown as a painter. In the last 20 years of his life, he had shown almost nothing of his work anywhere.

literature

  • Hamburg Art Hall. Catalog of the Modern Masters. 2nd edition, 1927 (catalog numbers 1487, 2067, 1486, 1969)
  • Hans H. Reimer: Lutheran in South Tyrol. The history of the Evangelical Congregation Merano. A search for traces of Protestantism in South Tyrol and Trentino. Bolzano 2009.
  • Joachim Konietzny: The painting by Heinrich Theodor Fricke "Marienkirche zu Lübeck, pillar epitaph". A consideration. Pansdorf 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-033414-6 .
  • Hans H. Reimer: Lübeck in South Tyrol. A piece of city history. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Heft 12 (from June 19, 2010), p. 204 f.
  • Heinrich Theodor Fricke. In: Vaterstädtische Blätter , year 1917/18, No. 29, edition of September 29, 1918, pp. 114–116.

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Fricke  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ It was the round panorama: "Ancient Rome with the triumphal procession of Emperor Constantine in the year 312 AD"
  2. ^ Heinrich Theodor Fricke. In: Vaterstädtische Blätter , year 1917/18, No. 29, edition of September 29, 1918, p. 115.
  3. ^ Heinrich Theodor Fricke. In: Vaterstädtische Blätter , year 1917/18, No. 29, edition of September 29, 1918, p. 116.
  4. ^ In Lübeck, Fricke had been registered as a painter since March 31, 1910, with his residence at Breiten Straße 44.
personal data
SURNAME Fricke, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fricke, Heinrich Johannes Theodor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and architect
DATE OF BIRTH September 25, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1917
Place of death Lübeck