Karl Eduard von Liphart

Karl Eduard von Liphart

Franz von Lenbach : Portrait of Karl Eduard von Liphart, 1880

Karl Eduard Freiherr von Liphart (born May 16, 1808 at Alt-Kusthof ( Estonian : Vana-Kuuste ), parish Kamby , Tartu district , Estonia ; †  February 15, 1891 in Florence ) was a Livonian baron, physician, natural scientist, art historian and -collectors.

biography

Liphart came from the old Livonian family von Liphart , who lived at Ratshof Castle near Dorpat . His father, District Administrator Carl Gotthard von Liphart , had attended the “Ecole militaire” Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffels in Colmar , where he had been shaped by the liberal spirit of the French Enlightenment and had developed Ratshof Castle into a social meeting place for the educated residents of Dorpat. In addition to his numerous own sons and daughters, he also took care of the education and support of other young people, such as the later painter Woldemar Friedrich Krüger . He also employed a private quartet band from 1829 to 1834, in which, among others, the Hamburg violin virtuoso Ferdinand David , his later son-in-law, played as first violinist and the cellist Johann Benjamin Groß . This liberal milieu, open to the sciences and the arts, shaped Edward's childhood.

After various trips in Germany, especially to the art treasures in Dresden and Munich , he went with Krüger to Italy from 1834, where he wanted to do research at the Marine Biological Institute in Naples , but instead finally decided on art. In Rome he came into contact with the German colony around the Prussian embassy to the Holy See , which was headed at the time by Christian Karl Josias Freiherr von Bunsen , and with the Nazarenes group of artists around Friedrich Overbeck and Bertel Thorvaldsen .

From January to May 1836 he accompanied the philologist Gustav Kramer from Berlin, later director of the Francke Foundations in Halle an der Saale , with whom he had made friends in Florence and Rome, on a study trip around the island of Sicily .

After returning to Germany, Liphart initially settled in Berlin. On January 3, 1839, he married Caroline Countess von Bylandt-Rheydt (1809–1891), a sister of the later Austrian Minister of War Artur Maximilian von Bylandt-Rheidt , in Cologne , and moved to Bonn for a few years .

Together with a younger brother, he traveled to Spain in 1843 and visited the major art collections, particularly in Madrid .

After he had temporarily returned to Estonia with his family in 1844, he finally settled in Florence with his wife and children as a private scholar in 1863. He bought an apartment on Via Romana, which soon became a lively meeting place for traveling scholars. He worked as an art connoisseur, collector and consultant.

Here he also made the acquaintance of the Berlin art historian Wilhelm von Bode in 1871 , whom he accompanied on his travels in Italy and advised and supported in the purchase of Italian art for the Berlin museums.

At times he was the teacher of Sergei Maximilianowitsch, son of Maximilian Napoléon Prince Romanowsky , who lived with his mother Grand Duchess Maria Nikolajewna of Russia in Florence .

Ratshof Palace , which he inherited shortly before his death, has housed the Estonian National Museum since 1923 , the holdings of which were largely based on the art collections of Liphart's ancestors. It was destroyed by Soviet bombing during World War II and was never rebuilt. Soviet military units were stationed on the area until the early 1990s. The park gate and the gatekeeper's house have been restored in recent years.

family

Liphart had been married to Countess Caroline von Bylandt-Rheydt from Cologne since January 3, 1839 (* June 14, 1809; † February 12, 1891 in Florence), daughter of Johann Nepomuk Carl Heinrich von Bylandt (* August 7, 1755; † 2 August 1822). There are five children from the marriage:

• Reinhold Karl (born November 13, 1839 in Berlin, † March 25, 1870 in Leipzig) Dr. phil. Leipzig 1861 Helene Henriette David, daughter of the violin virtuoso Ferdinand David .
• Karl Heinrich (born August 16, 1841 in Dorpat; † April 17/29, 1893 in Wörishofen)
• Guido Karl Hyppolit (* 1845 in Bonn; † September 28, 1848 in Dorpat)
• Ernst Friedrich (born August 21, 1847 in Dorpat, † 1932 in St. Petersburg), painter and archivist of all imperial museums in Russia
• Sophie (born November 13, 1874?) ∞ Leipzig May 29, 1866 with the violin virtuoso August Wilhelmj (born September 21, 1845 in Usingen; † January 22, 1908 in London)

Portraits of Karl Eduard von Liphart

• Franz von Lenbach , Karl Eduard von Liphart as "Saint Joseph" in "Flight to Egypt", around 1865, Munich, City Museum.
• ders., 1865/68, Munich, Nymphenburg Palace.
• ders., 1867/68, Munich, City Museum.
• ders., 1880, Berlin, Berlin Museum.
• ders., around 1880, Bonn, Art Museum.
• ders., around 1880 ?, Munich, Nymphenburg Palace.
• Ernst von Liphart: Karl Eduard von Liphart in his studio, 1883, Florence, Galleria d'arte moderna di Palazzo Pitti.

Works

• Notice historique sur un tableau de Raphael représentent Julien de Medicis, duc de Nemours. J. Claye, Paris 1867.

literature

• Wilhelm von Bode: Karl Eduard von Liphart †. In: Repertory for Art History. Vol. 14, 1891.
• Wilhelm von Bode: My life. Nicolai, Berlin 1912. (Reprint: in 2 volumes. Nicolai, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-87584-637-0 )
• Erik Thomson: Ratshof Palace in Estonia, from the Court of Muses to the National Museum. Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk, Lüneburg 1985, ISBN 3-922296-32-7 .
• Genealogical handbook of the nobility: Noble houses. Vol. XIX, Starke, Limburg 1990.
• Giacomo Agosti: Una famiglia di studiosi leonardeschi nei ricordi di Adolfo Venturi: i Liphart, padre e figlio. In: Maria Teresa Fiorio (ed.): I leonardeschi in Milano. Electa, Milan 1991, ISBN 88-435-3730-X , pp. 255-266.
• Hans F. Schweers: Paintings in German museums. I, 2, Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-24042-2 .
• Catalogs for various auctions of his art collections.

Web links

• Baltic Historical Commission (Ed.): Entry on Karl Eduard von Liphart. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital