Johann Friedrich Morgenstern

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Johann Friedrich Morgenstern (born October 8, 1777 in Frankfurt am Main ; † January 21, 1844 there ) was a German architecture and landscape painter , etcher and painting restorer.

Life

Cathedral from the south (1813)
(etching, aquatint and coloring by Friedrich Christian Reinermann )

Morgenstern was born as the son of the successful church painter Johann Ludwig Ernst Morgenstern, who mainly worked in Frankfurt am Main . He belonged to the third generation of the full-time painter hiring family from Rudolstadt in Thuringia . After he had already received painting and drawing lessons from his father during his youth and created his first cityscapes in 1793, he continued his education in 1797 and 1798 at the Dresden Art Academy under the important landscape painter Johann Christian Klengel .

In 1799, after a short stay in Darmstadt, he returned to Frankfurt, where he spent the rest of his life. In 1806 he acquired by marrying a Frankfurterin from the family Bansa the Civil Rights , 1811 his only son was Carl Morgenstern born. He followed his father's profession and later became the most important representative of the artist family.

Morgenstern died in his hometown on January 21, 1844 at the age of 66. The grave is located in the Frankfurt main cemetery in Gewann A 101. It is a listed building and is designated as an honorary grave .

plant

Morgenstern's oeuvre shows the influences of his father, who mainly painted architecture, the landscape-specialist Klengel, and Dutch painting of the 17th century. His architecture and landscape pictures almost exclusively depict motifs from Frankfurt or the vicinity of the city such as the Römer , the Liebfrauenberg or the area around the cathedral . They are therefore valuable testimonies to the cityscape in the first half of the 19th century he documented a lot that was torn down again in the second half of the century. An example of this is a row of views showing the classicist city ​​gates .

The landing place in Frankfurt a. M. (1825)
(colored copper engraving based on a template by Morgenstern)

The pictures he has survived, which are now mainly in Frankfurt museums (including the Historisches Museum and the Städel ), and some in private ownership, are essentially water-color drawings and etchings , and more rarely lithographs and oil paintings . Philipp Friedrich Gwinner listed a catalog with 95 items from his estate in 1862 and 1867.

One of Morgenstern's most important works was a 3300-square-foot panorama of his hometown from 1811, which, however, has only been preserved in a scaled-down copy that he himself drew, as the original burned near Forchheim in 1817 . A similar view of the Riederwald , created a few years later, has been preserved.

Some of his pictures were also re-engraved in copper and reproduced in small editions, such as the Picturesque Walk to the Altkönig and part of the surrounding area in the summer of 1802 , the panorama of the city from the tower of the Katharinen Church (1816) or Small Views of Frankfurt am Main in 36 engraved souvenir sheets (1825). These series of pictures, hand-colored by underemployed soldiers from the Hauptwache , are among the most sought-after works of art in the city today.

In his later years Morgenstern was - also in his father's tradition - very successful as a restorer of older paintings, which greatly reduced the number of new creations in the last two decades of his life. He also continued Morgenstern's miniature cabinet, which, however, was only completed by his son. It is now on display in the Goethe House .

literature

  • Albert Dessoff: Monographic Lexicon of Frankfurt Artists in the Nineteenth Century . In: Frankfurter Kunstverein (ed.): Art and artists in Frankfurt am Main in the nineteenth century . Joseph Baer & Co, Carl Jügel's Verlag, Heinrich Keller, FAC Prestel, Moritz Abendroth, Frankfurt am Main 1907-09, p. 97 u. 98
  • Friedrich Gwinner : Art and Artists in Frankfurt am Main from the thirteenth century to the opening of the Städel'schen Kunstinstitut . Published by Joseph Baer, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1862, p. 396ff.
  • Friedrich Gwinner: Additions and corrections to art and artists in Frankfurt am Main from the thirteenth century to the opening of the Städel'schen Kunstinstitut . Publisher by Joseph Baer, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1867, pp. 55ff.
  • Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Biographie . Personal history lexicon . Second volume. M – Z (=  publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XIX , no. 2 ). Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-7829-0459-1 . P. 64 and 65
  • Wilhelm Stricker:  Morgenstern . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, p. 230 f.

Web links

Commons : Johann Friedrich Morgenstern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ See e.g. B. Francofurtensien catalog Sauer No. 14 / 1977-78, for an incomplete copy of Small Views of Frankfurt am Main in 36 engraved souvenir sheets a price of 12,500 DM is mentioned here.
personal data
SURNAME Morgenstern, Johann Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architecture and landscape painter, etcher and painting restorer
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1777
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1844
Place of death Frankfurt am Main