Johann Conrad Seekatz

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Johann Conrad Seekatz, self-portrait as a musician, 1760
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Johann Conrad Seekatz, Resurrection (detail), City Museum Grünstadt

Johann Conrad Seekatz , (born September 4, 1719 in Grünstadt , † August 25, 1768 in Darmstadt ) was a German painter.

life and work

Seekatz, son of the Worms court painter Johann Martin Seekatz (1680–1729) and Juliana Magdalena Kuhlmann (around 1686–1772), painted social and military scenes, genre pictures from peasant life and landscapes with biblical staffage following the Dutch Adriaen Brouwer .

Johann Conrad Seekatz was trained by his older brother Johann Ludwig Seekatz (1711–1783). He also painted and in 1747 both took on an order to decorate the organ loft in the Bergkirche Osthofen , which they carried out together. Here the great talent of Johann Conrad was already evident. In Osthofen he created his first significant pictures of his own style, which clearly exceeded those of his father and older brother. The latter then mostly only worked as a decorative painter in Osthofen. Soon they parted ways and the much more talented Johann Conrad developed into an important southern German artist of the Baroque period, while his brother Johann Ludwig remained attached to the more artisanal, rural style throughout his life. The paintings by the Seekatz brothers in the Osthofen mountain church were in a very poor condition for decades and were extensively restored in 2003 under the aegis of the then pastor Volker Johannes Fey. Pastor Fey wrote detailed documentation about this, which is in the parish archives.

From 1753 Johann Conrad Seekatz worked as a court painter in Darmstadt. He also frequented Goethe's father in Frankfurt am Main and painted his family. Some of these pictures are on display in the Goethe House in Frankfurt .

His repertoire included small-format religious, mythological and history paintings. Seekatz also painted realistic genre pictures from the middle-class milieu and landscapes in the Dutch style.

gallery

  • The Goethe family in shepherd's costume

  • Tavern scene, Grünstadt City Museum

  • Children playing cards, Grünstadt City Museum

  • Girls and beggars

  • Rejection of the Hagar

  • Rejection of the Hagar, detail

literature

  • Louis Katzenstein:  Seekatz, Johann Konrad . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 33, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, p. 574 f.
  • Ludwig Bamberger: Johann Conrad Seekatz. A German painter of the 18th century. His life and his works. Heidelberg 1916.
  • Ernst Emmerling: Johann Conrad Seekatz. 1719–1768, life and work . Landau 1991, ISBN 978-3-87629-216-8 .
  • Gerhard Kölsch: The Goethe family in shepherd's costume. Origin, form and effect of the painting by Johann Conrad Seekatz . In: Goethe time - time for Goethe. On the trail of German poetry transmission into the modern age. Festschrift for Christoph Perels on his 65th birthday . Editor: Konrad Feilchenfeldt et al., Tübingen 2003, pp. 213–228.
  • Gerhard Kölsch:  Seekatz, Johann Conrad. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , pp. 145 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Johann Conrad Seekatz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ To the Seekatz paintings in the mountain church of Osthofen (pictures can be enlarged by clicking)
personal data
SURNAME Seekatz, Johann Conrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1719
PLACE OF BIRTH Grünstadt
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1768
Place of death Darmstadt