Jeremias Mayer

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Jeremias Mayer (also Jeremiah Meyer ; born as Jeremias Majer , born January 18, 1735 in Tübingen , † January 19, 1789 in Kew near London (now a district of London)) was an English painter of German origin. At the age of 15 he traveled to London with his father Wolfgang Dietrich Majer , where he stayed and lived most of the time. He was a famous miniature and enamel painter .

King George III ( Mezzotint by John Raphael Smith after a painting by Jeremias Mayer, 1763, National Portrait Gallery , London)
Georg, Princa of Wales, later King George of Hanover (ivory miniature in a golden frame, around 1773, Walters Art Museum , Baltimore )
Friedrich August , Bishop of Osnabrück, later Duke of York (1763-1827) (ivory miniature in a gilded frame, around 1773, Walters Art Museum)
General Thomas Gage (ivory miniature, c. 1775, National Portrait Gallery, London)
Thomas Alphonso Hayley (1780–1800) (ivory miniature, around 1783, Christie's , London)

Life

childhood

Mayer was the fourth of five children of the Tübingen painter Wolfgang Dietrich Majer and his first wife Anna Barbara geb. Sturmin, but the only one of these children who survived childhood. His mother died when he was only two years old. Since his mother fell ill in the last days of December 1736, he grew up for two years under the care of aunt Maria Katharina Majer, who took over the housekeeping until they married, later probably under the care of other women, as his father was at the ducal court a lot at that time worked in Stuttgart .

Out of the desire to give his then six-year-old son Jeremias a better upbringing, in January 1741 the father placed him in the care of his brother-in-law Schwalb, who was a civil servant - at that time in Rosenfeld and since 1743 in Ebingen . Jeremias first had to be cleaned of the vermin that plagued him by his aunt. This is an indication of the circumstances in which he spent the first few years of his life. The father picked up the civilized son on July 25, 1744. Jeremias' stay with his uncle gave rise to disputes because the father did not fully pay the agreed care allowance of 35  florins a year.

youth

Jeremias Majer spent the following years in Tübingen. He attended school as a “decent Latin discipline” and learned to paint from his father. Probably in 1749 he bought a house in Münzgasse for 500 florins. Since his savings were now not even enough for a quarter of the purchase price; the rest was financed from the grandfather's inheritance from Jeremias. To escape the misery of life in Tübingen, father Majer decided to travel to London and take 15-year-old Jeremias with him, who had already made good progress in painting. They left Tübingen on October 20, 1750.

In London, Jeremias Majer studied at Shipley's Academy on St. Martin's Lane . When his father returned to Tübingen in 1755, he was still in training. 1757–1758 he was a student of the German painter Christian Friedrich Zincke , who lived in London, and paid £ 400 for tuition and materials  . The contact came about a few years earlier through his father, who was friends with Zincke. He also studied with Joshua Reynolds , who significantly influenced his painting style.

success

Jeremias Mayer specialized in enamel and miniature painting and within a few years he achieved great fame. Since 1760 he exhibited regularly in the exhibitions of the Royal Society of Arts . In 1761 he won a prize (£ 20) for a profile picture of the king for a coin. In 1762 he took English citizenship and in 1763 he married the portrait artist Barbara Marsden, with whom he had several children and who survived him. In the same year, during the inheritance proceedings in connection with the death of his father in 1762, he de facto renounced his inheritance in favor of his stepmother, because "she was left with eight children with no means and did not think about getting married again". Even then, his financial situation was described as "blessed". At this time he also became the king's court painter, initially as a miniature painter and from 1764 as an enamel painter. His reputation was great and he took a leading role in the united artist society. In 1769 he was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts . At Mayer's suggestion, a pension fund was established for members of the Academy in 1775.

Mayer was good friends with the painter George Romney (1734–1802). He lived in Tavistock Row in Covent Garden for several years and later, until his death, in Kew near London. Mayer died of a fever at the age of 54. He was buried in the churchyard of Anne's Church in Kew, and in the church itself a marble plaque with his medallion portrait and verses by William Hayley was installed.

After Mayer left Germany in 1750, he never came back. His knowledge of German deteriorated over time. Already in the correspondence of 1763 one noticed linguistic deficiencies that can be traced back to the influence of English.

power

Mayer painted in oil, watercolor and enamel. His miniatures on ivory were incomparable in the truth of life. Their coloring was found enchantingly beautiful. For many years he was unsurpassed as a miniature and enamel painter. Mayer was valued as a person as well as a painter. Many of his works were owned by the royal family and are today among others. a. in Windsor Castle , the British Museum , the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford and in the collection of the Duke of Cumberland.

More famous works

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Leopold Oelenheinz : The Tübingen painter family Majer. P. 212 and 227.
  2. ↑ L. Oelenheinz: The Tübingen painters family Majer. Pp. 212-213.
  3. ↑ L. Oelenheinz: The Tübingen painters family Majer. Pp. 214-215.
  4. ↑ L. Oelenheinz: The Tübingen painters family Majer. P. 213.
  5. ↑ L. Oelenheinz: The Tübingen painters family Majer. P. 216 - In some encyclopedias the wrong entry 1749 is found.
  6. ↑ a b c L. Oelenheinz: The Tübingen painters family Majer. P. 226.
  7. ↑ a b c d L. Oelenheinz: The Tübingen painters family Majer. P. 227.
  8. ↑ L. Oelenheinz: The Tübingen painters family Majer. P. 223/226.
  9. ↑ L. Oelenheinz: The Tübingen painters family Majer. P. 225.
  10. ↑ Majer (in England: Meier, Meyer, Meyers), Jeremias (Jeremiah) . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 24 : Mandere – Möhl . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1930, p. 480 .

literature

  • Leopold Oelenheinz: The Majer family of painters from Tübingen. In: Württemberg quarterly books for regional history. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1912, pp. 210-229.
  • Majer (in England: Meier, Meyer, Meyers), Jeremias (Jeremiah) . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 24 : Mandere – Möhl . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1930, p. 480 .
  • William Sandby: History of the Royal Academy of Arts. Longman, Roberts & Green, London 1862.

Web links

Commons : Jeremias Mayer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Mayer, Jeremias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Majer, Jeremias; Meyer, Jeremias; Meyer, Jeremiah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English painter
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1735
PLACE OF BIRTH Tübingen
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 1789
Place of death Kew (London)