Johann Balthasar Bullinger

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Johann Balthasar Bullinger, 1770

Johann Balthasar Bullinger the Elder (born November 30, 1713 in Langnau am Albis ; † March 31, 1793 in Zurich ) was a Swiss landscape and portrait painter , copperplate engraver and from 1773 professor at the newly founded «Art School Zurich».

Life

Johann Balthasar Bullinger was born in modest circumstances as the son of pastor Heinrich Bullinger, who died shortly after the birth of his second son. The reformer Heinrich Bullinger is one of Bullinger's ancestors who served as reformed pastors . His older brother was also a pastor, and so Johann Balthasar Bullinger was allowed to pursue his artistic talent: He was enthusiastic about painting and etchings even while still at school. After his apprenticeship and traveling years he made the acquaintance of Elisabetha Stephan, daughter of Susanna Orell and the businessman Hans Balthasar; the wedding took place in August 1743 in Gottlieben. They had seven children together, but only three of them survived childhood. Bullinger made his own living and was a conscientious businessman, as can be seen from his notes. After 1771 Bullinger devoted himself increasingly to teaching, initially in the orphanage in Zurich . In 1773 he was appointed professor at the newly founded "Art School Zurich" and taught perspective , architecture , geometry and mechanics until the end of his life . His students included Hans Conrad Escher von der Linth , the builder of the Linth Canal, and Paulus Usteri .

plant

Johann Balthasar Bullinger received his first lessons from Johann Melchior Füssli , and after a two-year probationary period, his apprenticeship as a painter and engraver began with Johannes Simler. In possession of a letter of recommendation, he traveled to Venice, visited the etcher and art connoisseur Antonmaria Zanetti, who introduced Bullinger to Giovanni Battista Tiepolo . Bullinger worked in his studio from 1732 to 1735, and his didactic pieces included works by Paolo Veroneses .

Returning to Zurich, Bullinger was accepted into the Meisen guild , but still felt too inexperienced professionally and continued his years of traveling: In 1736 he painted his first landscapes on the Vigier family estate , in 1737 he came to Neuchâtel via Biel, where he worked as a portraitist. In 1738 he moved to Basel via Bern, got to know the cities on the Rhine and came to Düsseldorf. In the summer of 1738 he reached Amsterdam , where Bullinger worked for three more years and soon earned so much from the sale of his work that he was able to build a collection of drawings and engravings. Here he got to know the wallpaper paintings - canvas coverings painted in oil - popular in town houses at the time. Serious illness forced Bullinger to give up plans to travel to England, and in 1741 he returned to Switzerland.

Shortly after arriving in Zurich, Bullinger received his first order for a wallpaper painting. Commissions for landscape paintings and painted canvas coverings (imitations of tapestries ) soon followed , with which the Zurich merchant and magistrate families had their rooms decorated in a representative way; a total of six landscape rooms , some of which have been preserved. This includes his main work for the “Haus zur Stelze” on Neumarkt (today in the Bärengasse Residential Museum ), which he was the only one to sign and dated (1755). He created panel paintings with landscape paintings in the entire "Haus zum Schwarzen Kreuz" on Torgasse and in the Zunfthaus zur Meisen (1765). Bullinger noted in his biography: " At that time the landscapes in Zurich were en vogue with which entire rooms were covered ."

His autobiography and the complete, handwritten catalog raisonné document his clients and the landscape rooms he created. Sketches on Swiss history as well as topographical drawings, especially of landscapes in the canton of Zurich and some paintings are exhibited in the Kunsthaus Zurich . They depict rural, idyllic scenes; Bullinger sometimes chose mythological or social themes. A typical style feature are bushes and trees moved by the wind. Bullinger often provided the back of his works with a number, his signature and the year. The majority of his numerous portraits of Zurich citizens are in private ownership, some of them also in the Kunsthaus Zurich, including his self-portrait (1768). On behalf of the guilds made Bullinger Coat boards , guild signs and -stammbäume, but also plans for stove tiles and fabric samples belonged to his versatile work. Bullinger's preference has been etching since his apprenticeship : his work appeared regularly as illustrations in the New Year's papers or as cover pictures and vignettes in catalogs. As early as 1756 he published a collection of 50 landscapes; In 1770 he designed the volume “ Hundred Swiss prospectuses drawn from nature a. brought in copper ”, whose twelve views of Zurich are considered outstanding works, and in 1781 a series of palace complexes was created. Bullinger's landscapes are often based on models from the Dutch school of the 16th and 17th centuries, namely Jan Hackaert and motifs by the Winterthur painter Felix Meyer.

gallery

  • The Roman gold find (3rd century) on November 17, 1741 in Lunnern . The so-called excavation picture, an oil painting, combines various landscape views with the representation of archaeological excavation work.

  • Imaginative representation of Zurich around the year 15 BC In the middle of the picture the Roman round temple ( Grosser Hafner ) can be seen, on the Lindenhof a watchtower. New Year's Gazette of the City Library, 1773.

  • Wasserkirche , 1770

  • Castles in Strahlegg and Castels in the Prättigau . Etching by Bullinger and Heinrich Füssli (1755–1829)

literature

  • Ruth Vuilleumier-Kirschbaum: On the reception of Dutch landscape painting in Zurich from Felix Meyer to Caspar Huber . In: Journal for Swiss Archeology and Art History, 47, 1990. pp. 135–141.
  • Ruth Vuilleumier-Kirschbaum: Zurich rococo festival rooms. Painted canvas coverings in landscape rooms . Zurich: Report House, 1987.
  • Conrad Ulrich (Ed.): Zurich around 1770. Johann Balthasar Bullinger's city views . Zurich: Report House, 1967.
  • Ursula Isler-Hungerbühler: Johann Kaspar Füssli, Johann Balthasar Bullinger and Johann Heinrich Wüst as decorative painters from Zurich in the 18th century . In: Zürcher Taschenbuch, New Series, 74, 1954. pp. 46–62.
  • Friedrich Otto Pestalozzi: From the history of the Bullinger of Bremgarten and Zurich. (extinct 1916) . In: Zürcher Taschenbuch, New Series, 50, 1930. pp. 1–82.

Web links

Commons : Johann Balthasar Bullinger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Johann Balthasar Bullinger (the elder) on kunstinsel.ch , accessed on November 6, 2008
  2. ↑ a b c Tapan Bhattacharya: Bullinger, Johann Balthasar. In: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz ., Accessed on November 6, 2008


personal data
SURNAME Bullinger, Johann Balthasar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bullinger the Elder, Johann Balthasar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss portrait painter, landscape painter, engraver and teacher
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1713
PLACE OF BIRTH Langnau am Albis
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1793
Place of death Zurich