Johann Schmitt (church painter)
Johann Schmitt (born November 17, 1825 in Hainstadt , Baden , † June 10, 1898 in Covington , Kentucky ) was a German-born church painter in the style of the Nazarenes who decorated many churches in the American Midwest .
life and work
Johann Schmitt from Hainstadt in Baden learned painting in Munich without having attended an academy and emigrated to the USA in 1848, as he was hoping for greater professional advancement there. He had specialized in religious wall painting in the style of the Nazarenes and in America at that time many churches were built that had to be decorated.
Schmitt first settled in New York , where he met his wife Margarete Reichert, also a German émigré. Here he received a larger order for murals in St. Alphons Church.
In 1862 the couple moved to the Cincinnati area . Back then, the Bavarian Benedictine Odilo von der Grün founded a religious art school in nearby Covington (Kentucky) . It was called "Covington Altar Building Stock Company" or "Institute of Catholic Art Covington" and had three branches: altar building, painting and glass art. Soon Johann Schmitt was the main painter of the art institute. During this time, it fitted out practically all newly built Catholic churches in the American Midwest , making Schmitt one of the most famous church painters in the country.
His most famous work is the huge high altar mural of the Crucifixion, which he painted in the cathedral of Green Bay in 1883 on behalf of the German-born Bishop Franz Xaver Krautbauer . The picture is over 15 m high and applied to plaster in bright oil paints. After more than 100 years, Schmitt's crucifixion still shines in rich colors and impressively dominates the choir area of the cathedral. In 1887, the Jesuit Franz Xaver Weninger (1805–1888), who visited Green Bay in 1886 on behalf of the Bavarian Ludwig Missions Association , reported in a letter to Germany:
“ I've never seen such a beautiful, large mural in Europe. It was painted by Johann Schmitt from Baden in oil on the plaster, a method that results in more durable frescoes than those with watercolors. The figures seem to live in their movements ... This crucifixion scene is the most impressive and moving that I have ever met. "
In 1895 Schmitt made two more monumental wall paintings for the Cathedral of Green Bay, a depiction of the Mount of Olives and the burial of Christ.
Johann Schmitt's wife Margarete b. Reichert died in 1891, and the artist later married again to Elisabeth Scheper, a woman who had already been widowed twice and brought six children from two marriages. Mary Meyer, one of these children, later became a Benedictine; her brother Frank Meyer served Schmitt as a trusted assistant in the last years of his artistic career.
The painter died in Covington in 1898 and was buried in the "Mother of God Cemetery" there. He was a committed Catholic and a member of the 3rd order of the Franciscans .
Many of his numerous works in American churches were destroyed in the second half of the 20th century because they were considered out of date. The pictures that still exist - almost without exception in the Nazarene style - are now viewed, maintained and preserved as high-ranking works of art.
Johann Schmitt often worked with the Bavarian Wilhelm Lamprecht, who also worked in the USA, a student of Johann von Schraudolph . He was also the teacher of the famous painter Frank Duveneck .
literature
- Diomede Pohlkamp: Johann Schmitt - a Franciscan Artist of Kentucky . Franciscan Studies, Volume 7, New York 1947.
- Don Heinrich Tolzmann: German Cincinnati , 2006; Text excerpts from the painter Johann Schmitt
- Annemarie Springer: Nintenth Century German Church Artists . Bloomington, IN 2001; Page with Schmitt's paintings that can be called up, from this book
Web links
- "Johann Schmitt" (Kenton County Public Library)
- About the life of the painter Johann Schmitt
Individual evidence
- ^ To the demolished St. Alphons Church in New York
- ↑ To Odilo von der Grün
- ↑ Source on Johann Schmitt as a teacher of Frank Duveneck
- ↑ Another source on Johann Schmitt as a teacher of Frank Duveneck
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schmitt, Johann |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-American church painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 17, 1825 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hainstadt (Buchen) |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 10, 1898 |
| Place of death | Covington, Kentucky |