Julius Preller

Karl August Julius Theodor Preller (born December 20, 1834 in Offenbach am Main , † December 17, 1914 in Varel ) was a German landscape painter.

Life

Julius Preller, a nephew of the famous Weimar painter and etcher Friedrich Preller the Elder. Ä. (1804–1878), originally wanted to be a painter, but at the request of his father Johann Gustav Carl Preller, a businessman and bookseller in Mainz , studied mechanical engineering in Darmstadt . In 1857 he joined the Varel ironworks as an engineer and became its director on March 1, 1865 after the company was converted into a stock corporation for mechanical engineering and the iron industry. However, he devoted his free time entirely to his passion, painting. During various vacation trips to Berlin , he improved his painting art there at the art academy under the direction of the professors there, which therefore shows the formative influences of the Berlin academy. Preller combined the image type of the ideal landscape with an objective study of detail and so his view of the landscape reflected the connection between close observation of nature and poetic composition, as requested by Wilhelm von Schadow, for example . Paintings and drawings by Julius Preller were shown in numerous exhibitions, including at the Oldenburger Kunstverein (1897, 1898) and on the occasion of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Grand Ducal Painting Collection in Oldenburg (1904). In 1962 the Oldenburg City Museum dedicated an exhibition to him in which drawings with nature and landscape motifs from the Oldenburg region were shown.

After giving up his position at Eisenwerk Varel in 1884, he went on numerous study trips abroad, including to Scandinavia, Switzerland, Greece and Turkey. His house at Marienlustgarten in Varel was a meeting place for many artists until his death in 1914. Olga Potthast von Minden was his student.

Preller not only made a name for himself as a landscape painter, but was also one of the leading actors in bourgeois culture in Varel. He gained a great reputation as chairman of the Vareler Singverein, which is known far beyond the city, for whose performances of classical choral music he created stage decorations.

Julius Preller married in December 1858 in Varel to Auguste Elisabeth Nolte, who was born in Hamburg in 1832 and whose family the poet Theodor Storm had contact with during his student days. Theodor Storm wrote the short poem To Agnes Preller for his daughter Agnes (1859-1934) during his visit to Varel in the summer of 1878 .

Deadwood trunk in the forest. Painting by Julius Preller.

Julius Preller made several historical pictures of the regional landscape before Wilhelmshaven was built around 1860 , as well as the Kniphausen castle complex . Numerous motifs he found in the far from Varel Frisian Wehde located Neuchâtel jungle , Preller campaigned for its preservation as a pioneer of nature conservation. In 1892 he asked not to remove dead wood trunks so as not to endanger the character of the jungle.

literature

Elfriede Heinemeyer: Preller, Karl August Julius Theodor. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , p. 569 ( online ).

Friedhelm Müller-Düring: From ironworks director to landscape painter and nature conservationist. Julius Preller from Varel was an important artist of the 19th century In: Kulturland Oldenburg , Heft 4 2019 / No. 182, pp. 47-48.

Web links

Article of the NWZ Online: VAREL-LEXIKON - machines exchanged for easel online (with picture of the artist)

Individual evidence

^ Wilhelm Gilly (Hrsg.): Oldenburg landscapes: hand drawings by Julius Preller . Oldenburg 1962
↑ See for example the review in the Varel local newspaper "Der Gemeinnützige" from December 14, 1889.
↑ See Karl Ernst Laage: On the way with Theodor Storm . Heide 2002, pp. 118f.
↑ See Meike Lücke, History of Nature Conservation in the Oldenburger Land 1880-1934, in: Nature Conservation Has History. Searching for traces in the Oldenburger Land , ed. by the City of Oldenburg in cooperation with the Jade University and the Nature Conservation History Foundation, Oldenburg 2011.

personal data
SURNAME	Preller, Julius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Preller, Karl August Julius Theodor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German recreational painter, mechanical engineer, ironworks director
DATE OF BIRTH	December 20, 1834
PLACE OF BIRTH	Offenbach am Main
DATE OF DEATH	December 17, 1914
Place of death	Varel

[1] Wilhelm Gilly (Hrsg.): Oldenburg landscapes: hand drawings by Julius Preller . Oldenburg 1962

[2] See for example the review in the Varel local newspaper "Der Gemeinnützige" from December 14, 1889.

[3] See Karl Ernst Laage: On the way with Theodor Storm . Heide 2002, pp. 118f.

[4] See Meike Lücke, History of Nature Conservation in the Oldenburger Land 1880-1934, in: Nature Conservation Has History. Searching for traces in the Oldenburger Land , ed. by the City of Oldenburg in cooperation with the Jade University and the Nature Conservation History Foundation, Oldenburg 2011.