Johann Ludwig Seekatz

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Luther in front of the Worms Reichstag, destroyed mural, designed by Johann Martin Seekatz , executed in 1733 by his son Johann Ludwig Seekatz

Johann Ludwig Seekatz , (born August 16, 1711 in Grünstadt , † February 19, 1783 in Speyer ) was a German painter of the Baroque period; Teacher of his more famous brother Johann Conrad Seekatz .

life and work

Johann Ludwig Seekatz was the second-oldest son of gräflich Leiningen court painter Johann Martin Seekatz (1680-1729) and his wife, born Juliana Magdalena Kuhlmann , born in the residential town of Grünstadt. The father worked there until 1725 and then moved to Worms , as he received a larger order to design the Protestant Trinity Church.

Johann Martin Seekatz painted the gallery and the church ceiling, with Johann Ludwig Seekatz also taking part and learning the handicraft from his father. When he died while the job was being carried out, the son took over the rest of the painting. In 1733 he also completed the mural “Luther on the Reichstag in Worms”, which his father had designed. All pictures were lost in the Second World War when the church was destroyed, but were previously documented in color photographs and have been photographically secured.

Johann Ludwig Seekatz trained his brother Johann Conrad and taught him the art of painting. Together with him, he took on an order to paint the organ gallery in the Bergkirche Osthofen in 1747 , which they carried out together. Here the younger brother's great talent was already evident. In Osthofen he created his first significant pictures of his own style, which clearly surpass those of his father and older brother Johann Ludwig. The latter then mostly only worked as a decorative painter in Osthofen. Soon they parted ways; the much more talented Johann Conrad developed into an important southern German artist of the baroque period. The paintings by the Seekatz brothers in the Osthofen mountain church were in very poor condition for decades and were extensively restored in 2003 under the aegis of the pastor Volker Johannes Fey. Pastor Fey wrote detailed documentation about this, which is in the parish archives.

Johann Ludwig Seekatz first lived in Worms, later in Speyer. Throughout his life he remained stuck in the rather artisanal, rural style of his father and worked in the Palatinate / Rhenish Hesse region, also as a sought-after decorative painter and gilder. Many of his works - often unsigned or unrecognized - are still available in his home region, namely, religious images from the baroque period that appear naive.

The painter married on June 1, 1745 in Worms with the local Catharina Louise Bögereis (1710–1764). Her daughter Anna Eleonore (1749–82), who died early, was the wife of the Speyer painter Johannes Ruland (1744–1830). Johann Ludwig Seekatz also spent his twilight years with this couple in Speyer.

The Darmstadt court painter Georg Christian Seekatz (1722–1788) was the brother of Johann Ludwig Seekatz; both continued their father's rural baroque style of art. The aforementioned third brother, Johann Conrad Seekatz (1719–1786), developed an independent painting style and achieved national fame.

The uncle of Johann Ludwig Seekatz (his father's brother), Georg Friedrich Christian Seekatz (1683–1750) also worked as a painter in the region.

literature

  • Ernst Emmerling: “Johann Conrad Seekatz 1719-1768. A painter from the time of the young Goethe. Life and Work ” . Palatinate publishing house Landau, 1991, ISBN 3-87629-216-6
  • Fritz Klotz: "The painter Johann Ludwig Seekatz in Speyer" , Palatinate home no. 12, 1961
  • Hans-Ernst Mittig, Volker Plagemann: "Monuments in the 19th Century" , Prestel Verlag, Munich, 1972, page 204 Scan of the section on Johann Ludwig Seekatz

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ To the Seekatz paintings in the mountain church of Osthofen (pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them) ( Memento from February 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Fritz Klotz: Speyer: Small town history , Historischer Verein der Pfalz, Speyer district group, Pilger-Druckerei, Speyer, 1971, p. 136
personal data
SURNAME Seekatz, Johann Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Seekatz, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter of the baroque period
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1711
PLACE OF BIRTH Grünstadt
DATE OF DEATH February 19, 1783
Place of death Speyer