Johannes Greferath

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johannes Greferath (born August 18, 1872 in Schelsen ; † October 21, 1946 in Cologne ) was a German painter from the Düsseldorf School .

Life

Johannes Greferath was originally a teacher and attended the Düsseldorf Art Academy while doing school work . After initial success, he stopped teaching and devoted himself fully to painting. He moved to Winterscheid before the First World War , but spent the winters in Cologne.

In 1920 Darmstadt awarded him the Ernst Ludwig Prize . A street in Cologne-Klettenberg is named after him.

role models

In 1922 he stayed in Holland for six months and saw an exhibition by Rembrandt in Amsterdam, which deeply impressed him and influenced his work - not so much in the external design, but in the way Rembrandt used the colors. In later years Greferath himself wrote: "Through them [the colors] breaks an incomprehensible stream of spellbound fate, of life, of soul, of the magic of being."

plant

Village street in Schelsen (detail)

On the advice of his teacher at the art academy, Gottfried Eckhardt , he initially devoted himself to portraiture. However, he did not find artistic satisfaction in this work: “As a portraitist, you can never paint what you want, only what the customer thinks is beautiful and good.” Nevertheless, he still created impressive portraits in later years, for example in 1923 the portrait of the Cologne collector Josef Haubrich and in 1933 the portrait of the mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer .

Under the influence of a group of “Niederrheinmalern” around Olof Jernberg, Greferath mainly painted landscapes, also still lifes, but also religious motifs. His landscape painting received new impulses after a trip through Spain in 1923, again through the colors: "It seemed to me as if this country was passing over me with a rapture of sun and colors." From this time spirited oil paintings in rich colors come from (for example Bullfighting , Spanish women , Spanish coast ) and also pastels, two of which were acquired by the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum from the Haubich collection and today belong to the Museum Ludwig ( Driveway to the bullfight , in the park of Seville ).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Schröder: The civil community Ruppichteroth 1808-2006 . P. 147
  2. ↑ Johannes Greferath. Memorial exhibition on the occasion of the 75th birthday . Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne 1947
  3. ^ The plight of the portraitist, Heinz Stephan, Kölnische Rundschau approx. 1970
personal data
SURNAME Greferath, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter of the Düsseldorf School
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Shells
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 1946
Place of death Cologne