Josef Willroider

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Josef Willroider, portrait around 1900 by Anton Gregoritsch
View of Villach, 1858
Honorary grave for Josef and Ludwig Willroider at the central cemetery in Villach

Josef Willroider (born June 16, 1838 in Villach ( Carinthia ), † June 12, 1915 in Munich ) was an Austrian landscape painter and etcher .

Life

Willroider was the son of the city architect Josef Willroider and his wife Josefa, née Kleinberger. His older brother was Ludwig Willroider . He first completed a craft training in his father's carpentry workshop before he received his first painting lessons from Jakob Canciani (1820–1891), who was also based in Villach.

Willroider went to Munich in 1860 at the age of 22 in order to further his self-study and to study at the Munich Academy there. Nevertheless, he is often referred to as an autodidact , which seems justified insofar as he did not permanently join a master in his academic years. In any case, an important influence during this time was the acquaintance with Eduard Schleich the Elder , who had already toured France with Carl Spitzweg in the early 1850s and thus became the earliest and most important mediator of the new landscape conception of the Barbizon and Fontainebleau painters within the Munich landscape painting was.

In 1866 Willroider went to Düsseldorf for over two decades . He stayed there until 1889. In Düsseldorf he made the acquaintance of the brothers Andreas Achenbach and Oswald Achenbach , of whom the former certainly exerted the most lasting influence on the artist in his fascination with the Dutch landscape.

Oswald Achenbach was a professor there from 1863 to 1872. With colorful depictions of southern landscapes, he brought a new, fresh sound to the German scene, which was characterized by the muted studio tone of Dutch landscape painting of the 17th century. Like his brother Andreas, who preferred Nordic landscapes and seascapes, he was decisive for the Düsseldorf School of Painting at the time Willroider was living in Düsseldorf.

In 1870, Willroider joined the famous Malkasten artists ' association , the artists' association in which the more progressive Düsseldorf landscape painters gathered, who distinguished themselves from academic traditionalism and rather pursued contemporary open-air painting based on the French model. During this time Willroider undertook several study trips, mainly to northern Germany , but more often also to Holland .

In 1882 he was made an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and his landscapes are regularly sold in the art association's exhibitions.

In 1883 this honor was also given to his brother Ludwig, to whom the Prince Regent Luitpold also conferred the title of professor in 1886. In 1889 he returned to Munich and moved into a studio in Arkostraße with his brother Ludwig, who was seven years younger than him. The 1870s and 1880s brought both brothers to the fore in the ranks of German landscape painting.

He found his motifs above all on Lake Starnberg and in the vicinity of Bernried , where he was staying with his brother. In Josef Willroider's work, the Carinthian landscapes occupy a comparatively large area. His views from the Wörthersee with the characteristic view from Maria Wörth are worth mentioning here, but Villach and its surroundings also appear again and again in his pictures. The two brothers had not only received the official recognition they deserved with their painting, but with their artistic work they had established a firm place in the history of German landscape painting.

Oddities

There is a flaw set in stone on the tombstone. According to the gravestone, his year of birth would be 1858 instead of 1838. This error is still visible today.

literature

Web links

Commons : Josef Willroider  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Gertrud Oezelt: On the life story of the Villach painter Jakob Canciani (1820-1891) . In: Dr. Wilhelm Neumann (Ed.): News from Alt-Villach . 9/10 City Museum Yearbook. Kärntner Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Klagenfurt 1973, p. 173-179 .
  2. ^ Museum Kunstpalast : Artists of the Düsseldorf School of Painting (selection, as of November 2016, [1] PDF).
  3. Errors set in stone on ORF of November 3, 2019, accessed on November 3, 2019.