Johann Heinrich Baumann

Johann Heinrich Baumann, self-portrait

Johann Heinrich Baumann ( Latvian Johans Heinrihs Baumanis ; born January 29 ^{. Jul} / February 9, 1753 ^greg. In Mitau ( Jelgava ); † 7. July 1832 in Klein-Jungfernhof ( Jumprava ) in Riga ) was a Courland painter.

Life

Johann Heinrich Baumann was born into a Baltic German family; his father was the pastor and superintendent of Kurland, Joachim Baumann . Intended to follow in his father's footsteps, Baumann studied theology at the University of Erfurt from 1773 to 1776 . On the side, however, he began to paint under the guidance and influence of Jacob Samuel Beck , (1715–1778) a local painter who had specialized in depictions of animals in the Baroque style . After completing his studies, Baumann returned to Kurland , but from then on strove for an artistic career instead of becoming a pastor.

As an enthusiastic hunter, Baumann traveled on hunting expeditions to Lithuania , Belarus and Russia . He described his hunting adventures in quirky, anecdotal short stories, which earned him the nickname " Münchhausen von Kurland". His interests increasingly determined his art, which turned out to be an unusual mixture of artistic ability and professional training with a naive and negligent manner of execution. Almost all of his pictures show animals, hunting scenes and similar subjects. His art can best be described as rural baroque, influenced by similar motifs from the Dutch golden age , with a recognizable personal style. Although he was never one of the outstanding artists of the Russian Empire , he received special recognition from the Russian Art Academy in 1786 . In 1790 he became a member of the Academy in Saint Petersburg . It is believed that Baumann painted over 1700 pictures; however, only 43 survive today that can be safely attributed to him.

Baumann was one of the first authors to write plays in Latvian.

literature

• Carola L. Gottzmann , Petra Hörner: Lexicon of the German-language literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg . De Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 , p. 173 f .

Web links

• Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Johann Heinrich Baumann. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wilhelm Neumann: Lexicon of Baltic artists . Jonck & Poliewsky, Riga 1908, p. 7 (accessed April 14, 2013).
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Dace Lamberga: The Hunter with A Paintbrush . Studija Visual Arts Magazine. 2004. Retrieved April 14, 2013.
3. ^ Johann Friedrich von Recke , Theodor Beise , Karl Eduard Napiersky : General Lexicon of Writers and Scholars of the Provinces of Livonia ... , p. 80 ( Google Books )
4. ↑ Guntis Belēvičs: Johan Heinrihs Baumanis . Latvian Art Classics. Archived from the original on March 24, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 14, 2013.