Hermann Bever

Hermann Bever (born August 15, 1845 in Würzburg , † December 18, 1912 in Munich ) was a German painter , curator and gallery director.

Family and education

Hermann Bever was the second son of the royal Bavarian ministerial director in the State Ministry of Trade and Public Works in Munich, Karl Ritter von Bever (1798 / 99-1860), and his wife Ernestine, née. Michaelis, born. Like the father, the younger brother Otto von Bever (1839–1920) was elevated to the rank of personal nobility as royal ministerial advisor and general secretary in the state ministry of the royal house and foreign affairs.

After elementary school, Bever attended the Munich Wilhelmsgymnasium for three years and then switched to the Maximiliansgymnasium , where he graduated from high school in 1864. He then studied law at the universities of Munich and Berlin until 1868, completed the compulsory preparatory practice at court and administrative authorities and passed the state examination in 1871 with the grade "II". Despite the obviously given career prospects, Hermann Bever enrolled in the class of antiquities at the Munich Art Academy on May 12, 1871 , attended the engraving class with Johann Leonhard Raab and the preparatory class with Otto Seitz . From 1876 to 1879 he studied painting in the master class under Karl Theodor von Piloty .

Life

In 1879 and 1880 Bever traveled to Italy and Tyrol . He was a member and secretary for 2 years of the Munich Artists' Cooperative and the General German Art Cooperative . In 1885 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Royal Bavarian Order of Leopold and in March of the same year he was granted citizenship in Munich.

In 1897 he applied to the State Ministry of the Interior for Culture and School Affairs for the position of curator at the Bavarian State Painting Collections to succeed the deceased Heinrich Lossow , among other things because "because of a change in art perceptions and with the general deterioration in sales, especially of German art production" his income had fallen and because he suffered “from an increasing inability to accommodate the eyes”, “which makes it extremely difficult for him to constantly change the setting of the eyes for near and far, which is necessary when working according to the model, without this in reading and Writing would be hindered in some way or there would be a danger of blindfolding. ”In 1899 he was appointed curator of the royal branch picture gallery in Schleissheim and (until 1905) a member of the gallery commission. In 1907 he went on a business trip to the art collections in Nuremberg, Bamberg, Würzburg, Aschaffenburg, Ansbach, Augsburg and Frankfurt am Main in order to then report on their institutions, buildings and collections. After a serious influenza illness, he received convalescence leave and cures in Bad Tölz and Meran in the winter of 1908/09 , but these did not bring any improvement in health. In 1912 he was finally given permanent retirement. He died that same year.

plant

As a freelance painter, Hermann Bever composed Upper Bavarian landscapes and still lifes , but above all scenes from rural life, in which he often used hunters and dairymen or children. The painting Der Wildschütz was created in 1876, and in 1878 a painting titled Rain , which was reproduced in 1879 as a wood engraving in the journal Gartenlaube . At the International Art Exhibition in Munich in 1879, Bever was represented with low hunting zeal , which showed a hunter at the dairymaid . The picture was then shown in Düsseldorf and Dresden and assigned the artist to the circle of the well-known Munich painters Franz von Defregger and Hugo Kaufmann . In the exhibition Piloty and his School, 1858–1886 at the Heinemann Gallery, Munich 1909, Bever was represented with an interior study from his academy days. He sent further pictures to the annual exhibitions in the royal glass palace in Munich; many appeared as wood engraving reproductions in the popular magazines Die Gartenlaube , Daheim or Jugendlust . The Bavarian State Painting Collections acquired a “still life” and the oil sketch under the gate .

Archival material

• Munich, City Archives: Registration documents (PMB) Hermann Bever .
• Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, archive: Hermann Bever personnel file .

literature

• Julius Meyer, Hermann Lücke, Hugo von Tschudi (Hrsg.): General artist lexicon. Volume 3, Leipzig 1885, p. #.
• Friedrich von Boetticher : painter works of the 19th century. Contribution to Art History Volume 1, 1, Dresden 1891, p. 88 .
• German Order Almanac. Handbook of the knights and nuns of German citizenship. Volume 3, Berlin 1908/09, p. 109.
• Anton Bettelheim (Hrsg.): Biographisches Jahrbuch und Deutscher Nekrolog. Volume 18, 1913 (1917), Berlin, Reimer, 1917, Totenliste Sp. 10 * .
• General artist lexicon. Lives and works of the most famous visual artists , prepared by Hermann Alexander Müller, edited by Hans Wolfgang Singer. Literary establishment Rütten & Loening, Frankfurt 1921, Volume 1 and supplements, p. #.
• Bever, Hermann . In: Ulrich Thieme , Felix Becker (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker. tape 3 : Bassano – Bickham . Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1909, p. 557 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
• Bever, Hermann . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 5 : V-Z. Supplements: A-G . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1961.
• Walter Schärl: Bever, Karl , in: The composition of the Bavarian civil service from 1806-1918 (= Munich historical studies , Department of Bavarian History 1), Kallmünz / Opf. 1955, p. #.
• Bruckmann's Lexicon of Munich Art. Munich painter in the 19th century. Volume 1, 1981, p. # (Fig.).
• Hans Ries: Illustrations and Illustrators 1871–1914. The range of images from the Wilhelminian era. History and aesthetics of the original and printing techniques. International lexicon of illustrators Bibliography of their work in German-language books and magazines, on picture sheets and blackboards . H. Th. Wenner, Osnabrück 1992, ISBN 3-87898-329-8 , S. #.
• Bever, Hermann . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 10, Saur, Munich a. a. 1994, ISBN 3-598-22750-7 .
• Hans F. Schweers (Ed.): Paintings in German museums , Part 1: Artists and their works. A – G , 4th updated and expanded edition. Saur, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-24166-6 , S. #.
• Siegfried Weiß : Art career aspiration. Painter, graphic artist, sculptor. Former students of the Munich Maximiliansgymnasium from 1849 to 1918. Allitera Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-86906-475-8 , pp. 97-103 (Fig.).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Maximiliansgymnasium Munich, archive: matriculation, certificate protocols and annual reports 1858/59 to 1863/64.
2. ↑ matriculation 1841-1884: 02667 Hermann Bever .
3. ↑ Ministerialblatt for Church and School Affairs 1886, No. 2.
4. ↑ Letter of application in the personnel file: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, archive.
5. ^ Journal of Fine Arts. Art Chronicle , New Series 24 (1912/13), p. 195: Münchner Latest Nachrichten , No. 648, December 20, 1912: Thanksgiving.
6. ↑ 4th general German art exhibition 1880
7. ^ Sächsischer Kunstverein 1881
8. ↑ Exhibition catalog, No. 20.
9. ^ Official catalog of the annual exhibition in the royal glass palace in Munich 1883, 1894, 1898, p. #.