Johann Georg Siehl-Freystett
Johann Georg Siehl , from 1906 Johann Georg Siehl-Freystett , (born February 16, 1868 in Freistett , † August 15, 1919 in Rüstringen near Wilhelmshaven ) was a German painter.
The marine and landscape painter Johann Georg Siehl-Freystett dealt intensively and consistently with the situation and development of the city of Wilhelmshaven's history, which was only one hundred years old.
Career
When Johann Georg Siehl was born in Freistett in Baden in 1868, the city of Wilhelmshaven, named after the Prussian King Wilhelm I and designated a naval port , had not yet been officially founded.
Freystett came from a poor background and was the son of the Rhine shipper Johann Georg Siehl (1842–1871) and his wife Dorothea nee. House (* 1842). Since the family was not financially able to enable him to train as a painter, he began an apprenticeship as a painter in his hometown in 1884. Already at this time he made his first self-taught landscape pictures.
In 1887, the trained house painter began his military service with the Imperial Navy in Wilhelmshaven . Apparently talented as a draftsman, Freystett's attempt to enroll at the Karlsruhe Art Academy failed . In Wilhelmshaven at that time there was already a second artificial harbor entrance and the largest barracks in Germany at the time, but no town hall, no theater and certainly not a museum or public art collection. In a realistic assessment of the situation, he initially ran a photo studio from 1892 before moving to freelance artistic work in 1906 - still without academic training. In the same year he added the name of his place of birth Freystett to his family name. A picture signed with "JG Siehl" was painted by him in 1905, which shows the entrance to the 1905 State Exhibition in Oldenburg with the main hall built by Adolf Rauchheld .
Art direction
Landscape painting from Barbizon also played a dominant role in the Oldenburg landscape in the first two decades of the 20th century. Georg Müller vom Siel in particular was a typical representative of these predominantly agrarian representations in the Dötlingen artists' colony he founded . In the beginning, Johann Georg Siehl-Freystett followed this direction, as his typical Dötlinger motifs from the glacial valley of the Hunte show. New content marginally touched the original landscape motifs. The industry provided new, visible accents here. Just like the brickworks of the Frisian Wehde with their bright red roofs, like the painters of the artist group Brücke , Johann Georg Siehl-Freystett captured the steel ships, helmets and machines of the imperial shipyard in Wilhelmshaven , keeping the view of the camera and in his conservative attitude realistically realistic and worked with only minor impressionistic additions.
Freystett's favorite motifs were the Wilhelmshaven Kaiser Wilhelm Bridge and shipbuilding, for which he made his first studies and drawings in 1910 and 1911 respectively. The triptych “Shipbuilding” was completed in 1913. In the same year he moved into a painter's house on Kantstrasse. In the meantime he was able to make a living from the sales of his art in naval circles and organized an initiative with the former head of the Wilhelmshaven naval station Friedrich von Baudissin for the construction of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Kunsthalle, also opened in 1913, and the associated association of art lovers for Wilhelmshaven.
When war broke out in August 1914, he volunteered again for the Navy, which employed him as a draftsman. In the period that followed, his work was dominated by patriotic, military marine painting with the motifs of German warships and naval battles. Furthermore, his pictures also showed houses and squares of Wilhelmshaven and the surrounding area as well as the quays and coasts in wind and weather. Thanks to Freystett, it was possible to get an idea of the port city before the destruction of the Second World War in his pictures .
The Oldenburg Grand Duke Friedrich August (1853–1931) shared his personal ambitions for seafaring and the navy with Kaiser Wilhelm II, who frequently visited Wilhelmshaven . The painting of his yacht Lensahn with the sailing training ship Duchess Sophie Charlotte in front of the Rotesand- He had the lighthouse painted by Johann Georg Siehl-Freystett.
Out of his conservative stance, Freystett was also hostile to the November Revolution of 1918 and, shortly before his death, called in a newspaper advertisement in 1919 for the establishment of an “apolitical” vigilante group. In the year of his death, a memorial exhibition with 249 paintings and 60 prints was set up in the Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven. In the period that followed, many of his works were lost and so there were only 150 unique pieces and 30 prints available for the second retrospective of his work in 1983.
family
Freystett was married twice. In her first marriage Minna married Clara Bertha geb. Karth (1876–1900) and in the second marriage Lina geb. Behrmann (1876-1943). The two sons Erich Georg (1895–1955) and Ernst (1898–1918) and their daughter Else (1897–1987) came from the first marriage.
Art exhibitions in the Oldenburger Kunstverein
320. KA from February 21 to March 21, 1907
- Village exit 85 × 110 cm
- Autumn birch trees 85 × 110 cm
321. KA November 17 - December 15, 1907
- Indian summer 110 × 125 cm
- Twilight 110 × 125 cm
- At the edge of the heather 110 × 125 cm
- Interior 79 × 96 cm
328. KA November 14 - December 15, 1909
- Winter day
- At the canal
340. KA February 16 - March 16, 1913
- jungle
- At the punch. Imperial shipyard in Wilhelmshaven
- Old windmill
literature
- Catalog Siehl Freystett Memorial Exhibition, Wilhelmshaven 1919.
- G. Pötter: Wilhelmshavener painter In: Wilhelmshaven - city and landscape by the sea . Wilhelmshaven 1958.
- J. Diederichs: Catalog artists in Wilhelmshaven. Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Wilhelmshaven 1982.
- J. Weichardt: Siehl-Freystett, Johann Georg. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , p. 670 f. ( online ).
- Hartmut Wiesner : Johann Georg Siehl-Freystett. Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Wilhelmshaven 1983.
Individual evidence
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Siehl-Freystett, Johann Georg |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 16, 1868 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Freystett |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 15, 1919 |
| Place of death | Rüstringen near Wilhelmshaven |