Jacobus last

Jacobus Leisten on his 70th birthday (1914)

At the edge of the forest (1874)

Jacobus Leisten , also Jacob Leisten (born March 25, 1844 in Düsseldorf ; † November 21, 1918 there ), was a German genre and history painter , draftsman and etcher .

life and work

As the son of the sculptor Peter Josef Leisten (1813-1859), Jacobus Leisten initially apprenticed to the sculptor Anton Josef Reiss from 1862 to 1863 and was involved in the execution of the grave monument for Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow († 1862) in the Golzheim cemetery involved in Düsseldorf. In 1864 he moved to the Düsseldorf Art Academy to study painting . In the same year he took part in the Danish campaign . Rudolf Wiegmann as well as Andreas and Karl Müller were his teachers at the academy . In addition, he trained with Wilhelm Sohn . In 1868 he stayed in Berlin . From 1869 to 1873 he lived and worked in Munich , where he was influenced by Piloty . Then he settled in Düsseldorf and married the merchant's daughter Louise Jäger here. In 1883/84 he toured the United States . In 1895/96 he went on a study trip that took him via Munich to Rome , Florence and Venice , the results of which were reflected in paintings. In Düsseldorf, Leisten was a member of the artists' association “Malkasten”, the “ General German Art Cooperative ” and the “Association for the Organization of Exhibitions”. He was also a member of the Düsseldorf Freemasons lodge To the Three Allies .

With his figure scenes, which were valued for their poetic conception, apt characteristics, but above all for their careful execution and the fresh luminosity of their colors, Leisten is one of the representatives of popular “narrative painting”. Issued were u. a. The love letter and a gallant peasant boy , the corner lawyer , the troubled politician , Werther and Lotte , two widows and the proselyte maker and the marriage contract . In Düsseldorf he showed Bavarian finger fighting , a concert at Richelieu's , billeting in a monastery , children playing , the duet (how will it end) , a drinking war veteran with a waitress and Kaiser Wilhelm I on horseback . In 1891 Leisten took part in the international art exhibition with the oil painting Wallenstein's advertisement for Isabella von Harrach . Even before the trip to Italy there were scenes from noble family circles of the late Renaissance, such as The Last of His Name and Uncle Cardinal.His scenes from Tyrolean folk life, among other things , as well as his history and genre pictures, were often reproduced in magazines such as Daheim , der Gartenlaube and Über Land und Meer . Strips also created etchings, which are characterized by a stressed realism, including the hand kiss , the toast , refreshments and disagreements for years booklets of "Düsseldorf Radirclub" (etchings Düsseldorf artist) . Works by the artist were already purchased for public collections during his lifetime (according to Thieme / Becker Elberfeld and Bremen) and adorned public buildings (town halls in Coburg and Gotha). In Coburg Castle , his equestrian portrait of the Duke is Ernst II. The artist Malkasten in Dusseldorf preserved his portrait of the painter Carl Friedrich Deiker of 1912.

According to an auction catalog by Rudolf Bangels from 1914, Jacobus Leisten had the title of professor, also from the editorial staff of the weekly “Rhein und Düssel” on his seventieth birthday. A picture with the title At the toilet is listed under no. 190 in the directory .

Prince Regent Luitpold (1911)

Some of Leisten's paintings were probably lost or destroyed in World War II; the fate of a picture is uncertain: in 1911 he painted the Prince Regent Luitpold on a galloping horse. This picture was printed in the Wittelsbachers' own calendar decades later, but now seems to have disappeared.

Archival material

• Handwritten curriculum vitae: Düsseldorf, Malkasten-Archiv.
• Eduard Daelen: Poem in memory of Jacobus Leisten: Düsseldorf, Malkasten archive.

literature

• Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, supplement art chronicle, NF XXX, October 1918, p. 140 (obituary).
• Munich Latest News, November 25, 1918 (obituary).
• A. Seubert: General artist lexicon or life and works of the most famous visual artists . Second volume G – N. Published by Ebner & Seubert, Stuttgart 1878.
• Andresen, Andreas (Ed.): Handbook for copper engraving collectors or lexicon of copper engravers, painter-etchers and form cutters of all countries and schools according to their most valued sheets and works. Supplementary booklet, edited by Wessely. Leipzig 1885, p. 57.
• Adolf Rosenberg: From the Düsseldorf painting school. Studies and sketches . Leipzig 1889.
• Adolf Rosenberg: History of Modern Art . 2nd supplemented edition. Leipzig 1894.
• Last, Jacobus. In: Friedrich von Boetticher: painter works of the 19th century. Contribution to art history. Volume 1/2, sheets 31–61: Heideck – Mayer, Louis. Ms. v. Boetticher's Verlag, Dresden 1895, p. 831 ( archive.org ). - (51 works).
• Hermann Degener (Ed.): Who is it? 2nd edition, Leipzig 1906, 686th - 7th edition, Leipzig 1914, p. 979.
• Dressler's art manual 1907.
• Hans Wolfgang Singer (Ed.): General artist lexicon. Life and works of the most famous visual artists , prepared by Hermann Alexander Müller. Volume 2. Literary Institute Rütten & Loening, Frankfurt / Main 1921. Volume 6 (supplements) 1922.
• Last, Jacobus . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 22 : Krügner – Leitch . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1928.
• Paul Horn: Düsseldorf graphics in old and new times . Düsseldorf 1928, p. 154; Illustration: p. 157.
• Malkasten-Festschrift 1948, p. 14.
• Emanuel Bénézit (ed.): Dictionnaire Critique et Documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays . Volume VI, 1976.
• Sabine Schroyen (arrangement): Sources on the history of the artists' association Malkasten. A center of bourgeois art and culture in Düsseldorf since 1848 . Cologne 1992.
• 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 .
• Hans Paffrath / Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf (Hrsg.): Lexicon of the Düsseldorf School of Painting. Volume 2, Bruckmann, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7654-3010-2 , pp. 322-323 (2 figs.).

Web links

Commons : Jacobus Leisten  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Helga Becker: Anton Josef Reiss (1835-1900): Life and Work . Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2017 (also Diss. Univ. Bonn 2016), p. 39/40.
2. ↑ Cf. nos. 8483–8488 in the finding aid 212.01.04 Student lists of the Düsseldorf Art Academy , website in the archive.nrw.de portal ( North Rhine-Westphalia State Archive )
3. ↑ Academic art exhibition, Berlin 1868 and 1870
4. ↑ Munich 1872; Vienna, World Exhibition 1873
5. ^ Vienna, World Exhibition 1873
6. ^ Art Association Exhibition 1876; Illustration: Illustrirte Zeitung 1877
7. ^ Kunstverein exhibition 1882
8. ^ Kunstverein exhibition 1885
9. ^ Kunstverein exhibition 1886
10. ↑ Permanent art exhibition Ed.Schulte; Kunstverein exhibition 1891
11. ^ Association of Düsseldorf Artists, 1892
12. ↑ International art exhibition organized by the Association of Berlin Artists on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Catalog . 2nd Edition. Berlin 1891, p. 41 ( digitized version )
13. ^ Academic art exhibition, Berlin 1877
14. ↑ Illustration: At home 1888
15. ↑ Rudolf Bangel: Directory of oriental carpets, jewelry and silver items, diamonds, pearls, etc. Like. From local and foreign private property. Paintings by modern masters, including the collection of Dr. HA .... i in M ​​..... n . Auctioned on Tuesday, February 17, 1914, Frankfurt a. Main, p. 17 ( digitized version )
16. ↑ Dirk Walter: The Wittelsbacher - a millennium saga . ovb-online.de, December 9, 2014; Review.