Julius Fehr

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Julius Fehr (born June 26, 1855 in Großeicholzheim , † December 20, 1900 in Mannheim ) was a German painter.

Life and works

Julius Fehr was one of two sons of the Großeicholzheim lithographer Jakob Fehr and his wife Magdalena, née. Hettinger. His brother Friedrich Emil Fehr died in childhood. Julius Fehr's father had already given up farming on which the family had previously lived. Julius Fehr, who probably initially helped him in the lithographic facility in the family's house at Butzengasse 2 in Großeicholzheim, completed a degree. From 1877 he attended the Karlsruhe Art Academy and from 1880 the Art Academy in Munich.

In addition to genre painting, Fehr also cultivated portraiture. At the age of 23 he created an expressive portrait of his grandfather Hann-Friedrich Fehr. According to Peter Assion , the oil painting was probably created under the influence of the Viennese painter Hans Canon , who was teaching in Karlsruhe at the time. He probably perfected himself in drawing under the guidance of his teacher Ludwig Des Coudres ; Karl Hoff , Theodor Poeckh and Ernst Hildebrand could also be considered as further teachers in Karlsruhe .

After completing his studies, Julius Fehr probably went on a trip to Italy and then settled in Stuttgart , probably around 1886 . He was married to Olga Lewering on September 29, 1891 in the collegiate church there . The connection resulted in three daughters, of which the eldest, Elisabeth, was born in Stuttgart in 1892, the second, Olga Magdalena, but only a year later in the artist's birthplace. The third daughter, Ida Paulina, was also born in Großeicholzheim in 1895. Julius Fehr may have moved back to his hometown at his father's request to continue the lithographic and photographic establishment at Butzengasse 2.

From this phase of Julius Fehr's life comes a large-format lithograph with a view of the town of Adelsheim , which was produced in his father's business, but apparently based on a drawing by his son. Julius Fehr apparently also received painting commissions from the church in his home country. In the style of the Nazarenes, there is a large altarpiece for the Evangelical Church in Großeicholzheim, which hung there in the choir until it was renovated in the 1970s. It shows Christ between Mary and Martha under the biblical quote "One is Noth". The picture was probably taken in 1895 or 1896. At that time the church had to be renovated after a lightning strike. Assion refers to family traditions when he suspects that two pictures for the church in the neighboring village of Bödigheim were by Julius Fehr. They showed Isaac's sacrifice and Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, were ascribed to the painter Martin Hofert in Bödigheim and removed from the church in 1964/65.

Smoking ban

Furthermore, many of his genre pictures come from the time in Großeicholzheim. Like his father, Julius Fehr often depicted scenes from his home, the building land , in his pictures . Most of his works, however, belong to portrait and genre painting; In some cases, they can also be used to clearly criticize social conditions, for example from the picture Der Winkeladvokat , which shows how two inexperienced peasants are ripped off by a lawyer.

Julius Fehr, farmer in the waiting room . Pencil sketch

In general, Julius Fehr often showed farmers from the old days in his pictures who had difficulties with the innovations of their epoch: Another farmer on one of Julius Fehr's paintings is apparently standing in a train station and looking with interest - and smoking pipe in hand - one Attack that begins with the words “Smoking ban” in bold. Created was similar to a painting that is up to the Second World War in the Railway Museum was and apparently in the chaos of war was lost or destroyed: The first schedule of the Royal Württemberg State Railways was a farmer who had apparently difficulty reading the timetable. A pencil sketch of the relevant content has been preserved. Replicas of the Nuremberg picture were used by the Deutsche Bundesbahn for advertising purposes. The picture puppet theater also comes from Julius Fehr's time in Großeicholzheim. Landscape and architectural images have survived in smaller numbers. After all, Fehr created a watercolor that showed Butzengasse, his home. He set up a studio in a garden near his father's house, which was demolished in the 1930s.

The family did not stay long in Großeicholzheim, although Julius Fehr later apparently returned regularly there and in the wider area to visit the family and to draw or paint. His move to the big city probably had financial reasons: In 1895 Julius Fehr first moved to Mannheim, later his wife and children too. Julius Fehr opened a painting school there. He also taught drawing at the trade school. During his time in Mannheim, he evidently mainly created portraits, which were highly praised.

His father Jakob Fehr died on the first day of 1900 after being ill for a long time. In December of the same year Julius Fehr also died, according to a note from his widow of sudden cardiac paralysis and after only two days of sick leave. His body was transferred to Großeicholzheim and buried next to that of his father. The grave no longer exists.

Offspring and aftermath

Julius Fehr's widow initially returned to Großeicholzheim with the three small children and moved back into the house at Butzengasse 2. In 1903, relatives took her daughter Olga in America. The other two daughters later attended the secondary school for daughters in Karlsruhe after the family moved again. Elisabeth Fehr later married in Belgrade . Her mother followed her there after the First World War . Olga Fehr, b. Lewering, died in Yugoslavia in 1923 .

Some of the daughters and grandchildren of Julius Fehr continued the artistic traditions of the Fehr family. The daughter Olga became a painter in New Hampshire , Elisabeth Fehr, who only died in 1974, became the mother of a Yugoslavian painter and caricaturist and Ida Fehr, who died in Adelsheim in 1941, worked as a photographer and actress in Esslingen am Neckar . Their son Edgar Lünig, also a photographer, later collected and kept the works of his grandfather and great-grandfather, which could still be found after the Second World War, in Bad Friedrichshall .

literature

Web links

Commons : Julius Fehr  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry of the matriculation book .
personal data
SURNAME Fehr, Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Großeicholzheim
DATE OF DEATH 20th December 1900
Place of death Mannheim