Johann Michael Holder

Johann Michael Holder (* 18th January 1796 in Hildrizhausen , † 21st March 1861 in Stuttgart ) was a württembergischer on miniatures specialist portrait painter and photographer who worked in Stuttgart.

Portrait of a child by Wilhelm von Württemberg, 1818

Luise Katharina Vellnagel b. Sick (ivory miniature, ca.1825)

Christian von Vellnagel (ivory miniature, ca.1825)

Friedericke Hofmann (ivory miniature, 1833)

Sophie Keller born Doertenbach (ivory miniature, 1834)

Amalie Vellnagel b. Meurer (ivory miniature, 1836)

Christian Binder (ivory miniature, 1838)

Johann Jakob Moessner (oil on zinc sheet, 1840s)

Johann Martin Schaeffer ( steel engraving after a daguerreotype, approx. 1850)

Life

painter

Johann Michael Holder was a son of the wealthy country miller from Hildrizhausen, Johann Friedrich Holder, and his wife Maria geb. Hero majer. He was originally a primary school teacher. As an autodidact, he taught himself to paint, battling technical difficulties with tireless diligence. His first known portraits date from 1818 and "are still coarse, uncomfortable in color and dry". In addition, due to a lack of experience, they aged quickly, as he himself later stated. Nevertheless, he was “recommended from city to city” and received many commissions. Within a year he earned so much that he could afford further artistic training in Stuttgart.

After Johann Heinrich Dannecker rejected his training, he became a student of Philipp Friedrich Hetsch . Within a short time he acquired "an extraordinarily fine technique and an execution method that goes down to the smallest detail with a neat, small-scale modeling and a very delicate distribution of colors". Then Holder went to Dresden and later to Munich to study famous paintings there by copying them. In Munich he was particularly supported by Johann Georg Dillis . After this training phase he returned to Stuttgart, where he worked until his death. Since that time he has been using light and bright colors, a light carmine and fresh blue keep coming back. At that time, Holder switched from large-format portraits to miniatures.

Holder strived to reproduce the person portrayed as accurately as possible and invented a process that should make this easier for him. With the help of a frame he took a section of the picture and with a magnifying mirror he checked the miniature for conformity with the object. The influence of this method was undeniable. In this way, Holder achieved a "conscientiousness that can hardly be surpassed on a small scale", but nevertheless his pictures are "fresh and true to life, do not get lost in details". This is how Holder became one of the most respected miniaturists of this time in Württemberg and received numerous orders. In 1824/25 (from / to November 11th) he painted 79 miniatures, for which he received 2525  fl , an extraordinary sum for that time.

The success forced him to ask his younger brother Gottlieb (* 1806 in Hildrizhausen, † 1845 in Rastatt ) for help. He worked with Johann Michael in the years 1827–1839 by making repetitions and also independently making miniatures, which the older brother then gave the finishing touches. He painted some miniatures completely independently and signed them “Holder jun.”.

Since the beginning of the 1830s, Holder increasingly painted miniature pictures in larger formats. He enjoyed general recognition and received many honors and awards. He also received an appointment to Saint Petersburg and an invitation to exhibit his works in London . Thanks to the constantly high number of orders, he also amassed a considerable fortune. With the end of the 1830s, Holder's powers weakened. This coincided with the discovery of the daguerreotype, which Holder dealt with from the start.

Painter and photographer

What interested and fascinated Holder about the daguerreotype was its ability to objectively reproduce the object. He thought it was a document and not just a meaningful portrait. In doing so, he unconsciously anticipated the art theory of Friedrich Theodor Vischer (1851), who viewed the daguerreotype as a copy and imitation, as truth leading to false truth, i.e. H. Becomes falsehood.

After a few years, Holder advertised as a daguerreotype for the first time in June 1845. However, he continued to paint miniatures and normally used the daguerreotypes as models. In 1848 he exhibited daguerreotypes in addition to his miniatures. During the general industrial exhibition in Munich in 1854, Holder exhibited only his miniatures, which were based on his photographs. This was specifically mentioned in the Württemberg catalog. For this, Holder was awarded a prize coin in this exhibition.

Holder also experimented with another photographic technique in the 1850s - the pannotype . In 1857 he was so satisfied with the results that he dedicated advertisements specifically to this technology and announced that from now on he would exclusively “deal with this branch of photography”. He praised the pannotype for its delicacy and natural resemblance, although it was cheaper than the daguerreotype.

Holder was not only a successful but also an extremely productive artist. According to his own list, he painted around 2,300 miniatures, not counting other categories. Holder's last studio was at Tübinger Str. 7. At 64, Holder must have felt worn out because he ended his work and ceded the studio to German Wolf on November 1, 1859 . Almost a year and a half later, Johann Michael Holder died at the age of 65.

criticism

In his pictures, Holder shapes the spirit of the times as well as Stirnbrand , to which he is very close. However, the similarity of the arrangement shows the limits of his creative power. His miniature painting is extremely meticulous; the details, such as the women's clothing and the lush hairstyles, are reproduced by him in a wonderful way: hair-fine, but enlivened down to the smallest detail. His attempts in larger format, on the other hand, seem a bit licked. Among his most beautiful works of the 1820s are the portraits of some old women, whose rich clothing gave him the "opportunity for precious and colorful fine painting". The method of representation and also the arrangement are too consistent, however, not to have to put slight doubts about the fidelity and sharpness of the individual characterization and coordination. The portraits of men appear more similar due to the unadorned clothing, but the faces are always depicted powerfully, which is more evident than in the portraits of women. The delicate faces of young girls were a trickier task; with the simplicity of the girls' clothes the painter could not develop his skill in such a way. Here, too, the lovely, sweet ideal of the time is occasionally all too imperious. Nevertheless, numerous portraits of young women are exceptionally happy and beautiful.

The wealth of colors often increased in the 1830s. In the somewhat larger and very elegant ivory miniature of Sophie Keller he achieved "the highest in the miniaturist's work with its gem-like, but nevertheless very discreet luminosity and the harmony of fine colors [...]." The portraits of his parents, which were created as simple pictures without any representative intention, “are psychologically the most successful of the painter”. Here, in addition to the artistic taste, technique and objectivity of the painter, his inner relationship to the portrayed becomes visible. In the 1830s, the Biedermeier joy in his variety increased and brought a petty-bourgeois train with it. "But there is also a slight, subtle tendency to benevolent humorous characteristics, especially in the heads of old people, who he succeeds particularly well."

Well-known works (selection)

painting

• 1818 King Friedrich of Württemberg
• 1818 King Wilhelm of Württemberg
• 1823 Luise Doertenbach b. Zahn with her son Martin on her lap [wife of the merchant Johann Georg Doertenbach ]
• approx. 1823 Heinrich Jäger [Finance Councilor] (ivory miniature 90 × 72 mm)
• 1823 Friedericke Jäger b. Feuerlein [wife of Heinrich Jäger]
• 1824 Wilhelm Hauff
• approx. 1825 Heinrich Lotter [businessman] (large format)
• 1825 Luise Katharina Vellnagel b. Sick [wife of the businessman Johann Ferdinand Vellnagel] (ivory miniature 85 × 70 mm)
• approx. 1825 Christiane Uber b. Schraishoun [wife of the respected court bottle maker Johann Heinrich Uber]
• approx. 1825 Christian von Vellnagel [State Secretary, President of the Court of Justice] (ivory miniature 72 × 57 mm)
• 1828 Albert Knapp [pastor] (ivory miniature 76 × 62 mm)
• 1829 Friedericke Gärttner b. Autenrieth [wife of Minister Karl von Gärttner ]
• approx. 1829 Elisabeth Erhard b. Grammont [wife of the bookseller Heinrich Erhard]
• after 1830 Pauline Autenrieth [daughter of Chancellor Ferdinand Autenrieth]
• after 1830 Mathilde Schöllkopf
• 1832 Johann Friedrich Holder [the father]
• 1832 Maria Holder born Hero majer [the mother]
• 1833 Friedericke Hofmann [Christian Märklin's bride] (ivory miniature 100 × 79 mm)
• 1834 Sophie Keller born Doertenbach [merchant's wife] (ivory miniature 140 × 110 mm)
• 1836 Amalie Vellnagel b. Meurer [wife of the banker Vellnagel] (ivory miniature 90 × 72 mm)
• 1838 Christian Binder [Hofrat, numismatist] (ivory miniature 105 × 84 mm)
• 1838 Wilhelmine Binder b. Brodhag [wife of Christian Binder]
• Heinrich Boley [High Tribunal President]
• Auguste Boley b. Korn [wife of Heinrich Boley]
• Wilhelm Camerer [prelate]
• Elisabeth Wilhelmine Camerer b. Bossert [wife of Wilhelm Camerer]
• August Ludwig Reyscher [constitutional lawyer]
• August Wilhelm Goeriz [Councilor of State]
• after 1840 Amalie von Stubenrauch [actress]
• 1840er Johann Jakob Moessner (1784–1844) [royal valet and administrator of the Katharinenstift in Stuttgart] (oil miniature on zinc sheet, 187 × 150 mm, with frame 220 × 185 mm)
• Johann Martin Schaeffer from Unterjettingen (1763-1851) ( steel engraving based on a daguerreotype, 282 × 188 mm, Württemberg State Library )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ complementing each other: Werner Fleischhauer: Das Bildnis ... , p. 132 and Joachim W. Siener: Die Photographie and Stuttgart ... , p. 70
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Werner Fleischhauer: Das Bildnis ... , p. 137
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Werner Fleischhauer: Das Bildnis ... , p. 133
4. ↑ Werner Fleischhauer: Das Bildnis ... , S. 133/4
5. ↑ ^{a b} Werner Fleischhauer: Das Bildnis ... , p. 134
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Werner Fleischhauer: Das Bildnis ... , p. 138
7. ↑ Joachim W. Siener: Die Photographie and Stuttgart ... , p. 70
8. ↑ Werner Fleischhauer: Das Bildnis ... , p. 138
9. ↑ Descriptive catalog of the Württemberg products in the general industrial exhibition in Munich , published by the administration of the Württemberg sample warehouse in Stuttgart, 1854, p. 112
10. ↑ Joachim W. Siener: Die Photography and Stuttgart ... , p. 75
11. ↑ Joachim W. Siener: Die Photographie and Stuttgart ... , p. 104 cites advertisement from the "Swabian Chronicle" of May 10, 1857
12. ↑ Joachim W. Siener: Die Photographie and Stuttgart ... , p. 103 quotes an advertisement from the "Swabian Chronicle" of November 3, 1859, in which Holder recommends Wolf as his successor.
13. ↑ Werner Fleischhauer: Das Bildnis ... , p. 132
14. ↑ Werner Fleischhauer: Das Bildnis ... , p. 135
15. ↑ Werner Fleischhauer: Das Bildnis ... , p. 136

literature

• Joachim W. Siener: The photography and Stuttgart 1839-1900. From the masked sleigh ride to the court photographer , Cantz edition: Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-89322-150-6
• Werner Fleischhauer : The portrait in Württemberg 1760-1860. History, artists and culture , Metzler: Stuttgart 1939
• Ernst Lemberger: Portrait miniature in Germany from 1550–1850 , Munich 1909

Web links

Commons : Johann Michael Holder  - Collection of images, videos and audio files