Johann Georg Trautmann (painter)

Johann Georg Trautmann, self-portrait (1752)

Johann Georg Trautmann, self-portrait

Johann Georg Trautmann (born October 23, 1713 in Zweibrücken , † February 9, 1769 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German painter and graphic artist .

Life

Johann Georg Trautmann was born as the son of a saddler. Little is known about his apprenticeship with the ducal court painter Ferdinand Bellon (verifiable since 1726, died 1749). Since Bellon apparently primarily carried out decoration work for various building projects at the court, Trautmann is likely to have received a primarily craft-oriented training, which is likely to be around 1729 to 1732.

Trautmann came to Frankfurt am Main as a journeyman to work in the workshop of the facade painter Hugo Schlegel (1679–1737), and later the wallpaper painter Gabriel Kiesewetter (1711–1753). In July 1740 Trautmann was granted citizenship in Frankfurt , a month later he married Magdalena Ursula Kiesewetter, his master's daughter. The couple had eight children, only two of whom survived the first few years. His son Johann Peter Trautmann (1745–1792) was later also active as a - only moderately talented and successful - painter and art dealer . Johann Georg Trautmann died on February 9, 1769 in Frankfurt am Main. The inventory of the estate taken on this occasion paints the picture of a city citizen living in modest prosperity. Own art plays an extremely marginal role here.

At what point in time Trautmann founded an independent painter's workshop cannot be proven. In the years up to 1756 his occupation is given in sources as " painter ", but also as "wallpaper painter". His earliest known painting , a missing crucifixion scene, dated 1751. Thus, a creative period of about two decades can be assumed. Around 200 paintings by hand have survived, plus around 160 works known only from sources, as well as 35 drawings and three prints. Trautmann's work is extremely diverse. It includes religious historical pieces based on themes from the Old and New Testaments , as well as character and study heads in the style of Dutch “tronies”, a few portraits and numerous genre scenes of various kinds. Trautmann's nocturnal conflagrations and pieces of gypsy or robbery with campfires are to be emphasized in which the painter developed particularly impressive lighting effects. Trautmann's style is just as diverse as his themes: there are various influences of Dutch and Flemish art, but also of German painting of the 17th century , and sometimes even of the Flemish landscape painters who lived in Frankenthal around 1600 .

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  Transfiguration of Christ , 1760, Städelsches Kunstinstitut

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  Raising Lazarus from the dead , 1760, Städelsches Kunstinstitut

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  View of the Burning Troy

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  Lot flees with his daughters from the burning Sodom

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  A bearded man in oriental garb

literature

• Hermann Arthur Lier:  Trautmann, Johann Georg . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 38, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 518 f.
• Rudolf Bangel: Johann Georg Trautmann and his contemporaries, along with a history of the Frankfurt painters' guild in the eighteenth century . JAE Heitz, Strasbourg 1914.
• Gerhard Kölsch: Johann Georg Trautmann (1713-1769), life and work . Lang, Frankfurt a. M. 1999. (with catalog raisonné). Digitized online: [1]
• Gerhard Kölsch: Johann Georg Trautmann - A navolger van Rembrandt in de Achttinde eeuw (PDF; 129 kB) . In: Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis : Heft 1–2, Amsterdam 2003, pp. 21–33.

Web links

Commons : Johann Georg Trautmann (painter)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Johann Georg Trautmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by Trautmann