Johann Rudolf Werdmüller
Johann Rudolf Werdmüller , also Hans Rudolf Werdmüller (* 1639 in Zurich ; † April 1668 ibid) was a Swiss painter , draftsman and sculptor .
Life
Johann Rudolph Werdmüller was born in Zurich in 1639. He was the youngest son of Field Marshal Lieutenant Hans Rudolf Werdmüller , who was last in imperial service, and his wife Anna Werdmüller. He and his brothers Jakob, Heinrich and Conrad lacked the aptitude and inclination for the martial profession of their father. His choice of profession was influenced by his father's art collection. The latter enabled his son to train as an artist around 1653 with the Zurich painter and engraver Conrad Meyer (1618–1689) and the Dutch painter and etcher Jan Hackaert . In 1655 Werdmüller accompanied his teachers on an excursion to the Glarus Alps . According to Gustav Solar (1974), the drawings the teachers made there mark the beginning of Swiss Alpine painting. After completing his training, Meyer created landscape drawings and portraits, and skillfully copied paintings from his father's collection. As a successor to his teachers, he painted en plein air Swiss landscapes in the Zurich region and the Alps . In the mid-1660s he went on a study trip to what was then the art center in Amsterdam . During the winter in Frankfurt he sat in on the flower painter Jacob Marrel . In Amsterdam he contracted a serious illness that lasted for months. After his recovery he returned to Zurich. There he switched to sculpture. After Descamps, he modeled busts of Apollon and Minerva in terracotta as well as full-body figures of Milon von Kroton and a siren . In addition, he dealt with architecture and hydraulics . In 1668 he planned a study trip to Paris . However, on the first day's stage he decided to return to Zurich. It was already dark. Dismounted from his horse, he fell from the Sihl Bridge and drowned. His contemporaries and biographers regretted the loss of a promising talent.
plant
The work left behind and handed down is narrow and mostly consists of drawings.
literature
- Johann Caspar Füssli : History and illustration of the best Mahler in Switzerland. Geßner, Zurich 1755, p. 142 ( [1] ).
- Jean-Baptiste Descamps : La vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois. Volume 3, Desaint Saillant Pissot Durant, Paris 1760, p. 85 ( [2] ).
- Joachim von Sandrart : German Academy of Building, Sculpture and Painting. Third main part, Volume 7, 1774, p. 364 f.
- FO Pestalozzi: Werdmüller, Johann Rudolf . In: Carl Brun (Ed.): Swiss Artist Lexicon . Volume 3: S-Z. Huber & Co., Frauenfeld 1913, p. 484 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
- Werdmüller, Rudolf . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 35 : Libra-Wilhelmson . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1942, p. 389 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Werdmüller, Johann Rudolf |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Werdmüller, Hans Rudolf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss draftsman, painter and sculptor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1639 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zurich |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 1668 |
| Place of death | Zurich |