Joseph Balmer

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Joseph Balmer (born November 27, 1828 in Abtwil ; † January 22, 1918 in Lucerne ) was a Swiss painter and author.

Life

Ceiling painting by Joseph Balmer in the parish church of Kriens (1890).

Joseph Balmer was born in 1828 as the son of a butcher in Abtwil ( Freiamt ). After primary school in Abtwil, he attended the district school of Sins and the grammar school of Lucerne. After dropping out of school, at the age of twenty, against his father's will, he apprenticed to a gilder and painter in Sins and then worked for the painter Anton Bütler in Lucerne. Relatively late (from 1852) he continued his education at German art academies. From 1852 to 1856/57 he attended - with interruptions - the Düsseldorf Art Academy . There he was a student in Wilhelm von Schadow's painting class . Other teachers at the Düsseldorf Academy were Theodor Hildebrandt , Heinrich Mücke and Rudolf Wiegmann . He later studied under Hans Canon at the Karlsruhe Art Academy . In between he returned to Switzerland and stayed in his home village or in the studios of the Stans painter Melchior Paul von Deschwanden and his cousin Theodor.

Balmer was strongly influenced by Paul von Deschwanden . Like him, he mainly turned to religious painting. He also devoted himself to history painting . In 1876 he made drafts for the painting of the Tell Chapel on Lake Lucerne on behalf of the Uri building director . To his great disappointment, however, he only achieved second place behind Ernst Stückelberg in the subsequent competition . Another opportunity for historical representations arose when he collaborated on the book Swiss History in Pictures (Bern 1872), where he contributed woodcuts to Lucerne's history ( Murder Night in Lucerne , Battle of Buttisholz ). In between, Balmer also worked as a local historian and published several articles in magazines.

Mühlau church with altarpieces by Joseph Balmer (1865/66).

In church painting he had a hard time standing next to his role model Paul von Deschwanden. He received his first church commissions in his closer home. He painted altarpieces for the Catholic churches in Dietwil and Mühlau . Further altarpieces were created for churches in the city of Lucerne, such as a picture of St. Anne in the court church and the panels of the northern side altars in the Franciscan church . Altarpieces are also preserved in the chapel in Baldegg Monastery . The Mauritius image created for the parish church of St. Mauritius in Appenzell was removed again during the renovation in 1970.

He designed and realized ceiling paintings for the Dreikönigskapelle in Baden (adoration of the three kings) , the parish church of St. Germanus in Abtwil and for the parish church in Kriens (consecration of the church to St. Gallus) . The design of the Marienkirche in Schaffhausen (1884–1891) can be regarded as the high point of his ecclesiastical work . Here he not only made the altar paintings , the Stations of the Cross and the ceiling paintings, but also designed the decorative painting (Marien motifs in the choir, Passion cycle in the nave) and the glass windows.

Balmer received personal recognition in 1898 when he was elected to the Federal Art Commission . In this function he took a firm stand against Ferdinand Hodler's fresco design for the weapons hall of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich. He was honored in 1914 when he was granted honorary citizenship by the city of Lucerne. He died in Lucerne in 1918. His son Alois (1866–1933) also became a painter.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bettina Baumgärtel , Sabine Schroyen, Lydia Immerheiser, Sabine Teichgröb: Directory of foreign artists. Nationality, residence and studies in Düsseldorf . In: Bettina Baumgärtel (Hrsg.): The Düsseldorf School of Painting and its international impact 1819–1918 . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86568-702-9 , Volume 1, p. 426
  2. ↑ Cf. Biographisches Lexikon des Aargau (1958).
personal data
SURNAME Balmer, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Balmer, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss church and history painter
DATE OF BIRTH November 27, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Abtwil
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1918
Place of death Lucerne