Josef Zenker

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Josef Zenker (born July 9, 1832 in Neurode , Glatz district , † May 31, 1907 in Munich ) was a German history painter .

Life

Josef Zenker: Rebekah at the well. With this picture, Zenker won a first prize at the Munich Art Academy

Zenker was the son of a large shoemaker. His artistic talent was shown early on. Since his family could not support him in his desire to become a painter, he himself looked for an apprenticeship with a neighboring porcelain painter after finishing school. After completing his apprenticeship, he moved to Frankenstein and found work with a decorative painter, in whose workshop he was well trained and was allowed to independently manufacture figural church jewelry.

Presumably with the support of his Frankenstein master, Zenker went to Munich in 1856, where Wilhelm Hauschild and Aloys Richter, both of whom came from the neighboring town of Schlegel, were well-known history painters. In Munich, Zenker found sponsors who enabled him to attend the Royal Academy of Fine Arts for seven years . He became a student of professors Philipp von Foltz , Joseph Schlotthauer and Johann von Schraudolph and turned almost exclusively to church art. With the painting Rebekka am Brunnen he won a first prize at the Munich Art Academy. He was a member of the Munich Association for Christian Art, founded in 1860 .

From 1875 to 1876 Zenker painted a cycle of murals for the Church of St. Leodegar in Gebweiler . He received further orders for the churches in Altkirch / Alsace , Frankenried and Kirchheim in Swabia , Bad Reichenhall ( Aegidien Church ), and the pilgrimage church in Vilsbiburg . For the St. Antonius Church of the Capuchins in Munich he painted the paintings for four altars that were delivered from the workshop of his compatriot Joseph Elsner . However, altars and paintings were removed from the church at the beginning of the 1960s because they no longer corresponded to contemporary tastes.

Zenker made great contributions to church art . After he could no longer accept the large church commissions for health reasons, he turned to smaller paintings. He portrayed high clerics , including Bishop Michael von Rampf of Passau and Archbishop Franz Joseph von Stein of Munich-Freising . Due to an eye problem, he was unable to do his job in the last years of his life. After an unpretentious and modest life, he died on May 31, 1907.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Zenker, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zenker, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German history painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 9, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Neurode , district of Glatz
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1907
Place of death Munich