Joseph Henfling

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Joseph Henfling or Angelicus Henfling (born February 15, 1877 in Auerbach in the Upper Palatinate ; † November 2, 1950 in Ettal Abbey ) was a German landscape and portrait painter and friar in the Ettal Benedictine Abbey.

Signature on a painting by Joseph (Angelicus) Henfling, 1932

Life

Joseph Henfling (often also Josef Henfling, religious name since July 1931 Brother Angelicus OSB), born in house number 104a (today Unterer Markt 2) as the son of a church and decoration painter in Auerbach in Upper Palatinate, attended Karl's School of Applied Arts in Nuremberg for four years from 1892 Raupp and then from 1896 to 1903 the Munich Art Academy, where he was most recently a master student of Wilhelm von Diez . After study trips to Italy in 1905 and Greece, he was able to make a name for himself as a painter through commissions from the Society for Christian Art and regular exhibitions in the Munich Glass Palace .

During the First World War he was a volunteer. After that he mainly painted landscapes in Tyrol. During a stay in the Benedictine Abbey of Beuron he discovered his passion for monastic life. In 1929, at the age of 52, he entered the Ettal Abbey. On July 13, 1931, he made the holy vows and accepted his religious name as a sign of veneration for the Renaissance artist Fra Angelico .

As a monk he continued his artistic activity and created, especially in Ettal itself, numerous landscape paintings and portraits of numerous living people, as well as two large paintings in Study Room I of the boarding school and copies of portraits of the Alt-Ettalers from the time of the Benedictine Knight Academy from 1711 to 1744. He was also able to use his art in other monasteries. He painted 14 portraits of the abbot in the prelate hall of Scheyern Abbey and the iconostasis in the Greek College in Munich . He decorated the refectory in Weltenburg and the men's choir in Scheyern with frescoes. He also had talents as a singer, violin and guitar player and as a narrator.

He did not recover from a stroke on June 15, 1950, and spent the months leading up to his death in the hospital room without losing his sense of humor. Many of his pictures have a place of honor in the Ettal abbey buildings today. In the archive of his hometown Auerbach there are also some pictures of Henfling that his brother had given to the city in 1957.

Works (selection)

  • The herring cousin. An Auerbach original (oil painting), 1893
  • Portraits of Auerbach mayors (including L. Neumüller, J. Neumüller, M. Fellner)
  • Portraits of Ettal people
  • Self-portrait (back: lilac bouquet), before 1931 (archive of the city of Auerbach)
  • Eating boys (oil painting), 1906, after Murillo
  • Boys playing dice (oil painting), 1909, after Murillo
  • View of Schlehdorf am Kochelsee and the Herzogstand (oil painting), before 1931
  • Self-portrait (sketch), 1936
  • Saint Nepomuk (parish church Auerbach)
  • View from the Hasenkopfscharte through the Graswang valley (oil painting), 1938
  • View of Ettal Abbey from the slope of the Mühlberg (oil painting), April 20, 1943
  • Frescoes in the Weltenburg refectory
  • Frescoes in the Scheyern men's choir

literature

  • From the monastery chronicle (in Unser Mandl Ettaler Mandl , Jhg. 30/1951. P. 8 f.)
  • Hans Vollmer : General Lexicon of the Fine Artists of the 20th Century (Volume II, p. 417, 1955).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Register book of the Academy of Fine Arts
  2. ↑ Auction at artnet.de
personal data
SURNAME Henfling, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Henfling, Angelicus; Henfling, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German landscape and portrait painter and friar in the Benedictine Abbey of Ettal
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Auerbach in the Upper Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1950
Place of death Ettal Abbey