Karl Julius Graetz

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Archangel Michael glass mosaic on the west side of the Frankfurt town hall tower, designed in 1902 by Karl Julius Grätz

Karl Julius Graetz (born April 4, 1843 in Frankfurt am Main ; † November 27, 1912 there ) was a German painter who worked mainly in Frankfurt am Main.

Life

He studied at the Frankfurt Städelsche Kunstinstitut ( Städelschule ) a. a. with Edward von Steinle (1810–1886). Then he traveled to Paris, Berlin and Italy, a. a. to Milan, Venice and Ravenna. From 1870 the 27-year-old resided in Frankfurt am Main again and married Maria Eva Kraft here. Since 1884 he had been a member of the Frankfurt Freemason Lodge Carl to the rising light . Her son Georg Friedrich (Fritz) Graetz (* 1875 Frankfurt am Main † 1915 fallen in Serbia) also became a painter. Son Fritz also studied at the Frankfurt Städelschule under Heinrich Hasselhorst (1825–1904) and Frank Kirchbach (1859–1912) and later at the Munich Academy under Carl von Marr (1858–1936). Only a few of his works have survived and were z. B. offered by the auction house Zeller in an international Lake Constance art auction (128-old paintings and drawings). Fritz died three years after the death of his father Karl Julius as a soldier in the First World War.

Karl Julius became known for his church paintings, among others in the Frankfurt Imperial Cathedral, in the city church in Kronberg / Taunus and in the city church in Bamberg. However, it was not only the sacred buildings that he decorated with his paintings. Soon he became known among restaurant, wine and beer house owners for his talent for satirical presentations. His works in Frankfurt included z. B. 1881 the paintings of the wine tavern of the Gasthaus Zum Prinzen von Arkadien in the Alte Rozhhofstrasse, created by the Frankfurt architect Otto Lindheimer for the company Schulz & Wagner, the paintings of the beer tavern of the Gasthaus Stadt Ulm, Schäfergasse 9, built in 1882 according to plans by the architect Paul Wallot and the Cafe Kaisergarten, Am Opernhaus (see Architects and Engineers Association, Frankfurt and its buildings, Salzwasser Verlag, Paderborn, ISBN 978-3-84601-000-6 ). In Neckargemünd, he painted wall decorations in the wine wholesaler Julius Menzer's Greek wine tavern. He gained his special regional fame through his ceiling decorations in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt, his renovation of the ceiling of the Kaisersaal in the Römer, as well as his large mosaic, which still exists today, with the depiction of the Archangel Michael with the cross shield in the victorious battle with the lindworm at the town hall tower Langer Franz.

In the Kaiserdom Sankt Bartholomäus, Domplatz 1, choir, north wall, Atzmann's work from 1885 on the setting of the sacred space sculpture has been preserved at the sacrament house

  • Painting of the stairwell of Lieser Castle, 1887

  • Frankfurt Paulskirche interior ceiling decoration from 1892/93 by the artist Karl Julius Grätz, destroyed in the war

  • Ceiling of the Kaisersaal in the Römer, work of Karl Julius Grätz, 1903, destroyed in the war

  • Langer Franz with large mosaic of the Archangel Michael by Karl Julius Grätz

  • 2016 Photo of Langen Franz with a large mosaic of Archangel Michael by Karl Julius Grätz from 1902

  • Restoration of the paintings of the Kaisertreppe in the Römer by Karl Julius Grätz

  • View of Kronberg Castle in the Taunus

Works

In the literature, his most striking work of ceiling decoration with images of the four prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel and with 16 praying angels in the Frankfurt Paulskirche from 1892/93, which was destroyed in the Second World War, is emphasized.

He was born in 1903 a. a. commissioned with the renovation of the splendidly vaulted ceiling of the Kaisersaal in Römer according to the Wilhelmine taste of the time based on the designs of the renowned Berlin art professor Fritz Schaper (1847-1919). The monumental and peculiar effect was accentuated by a colored ornamentation using a huge double-headed imperial eagle with an imperial crown and golden fleece. See Hermann Traut, Der Römer and the New Town Hall Buildings in Frankfurt am Main, Salzwasser Verlag Paderborn, first print 1908, ISBN 978-3-84604-186-4 . This Grätz plant was also destroyed in the Second World War. During the reconstruction, the paintings by Karl Julius Grätz were not restored.

His largest, visible work that is still preserved today is on the western side of the New Town Hall ensemble in Bethmannstrasse and the corner of Buchgasse by the Roemer's town hall tower in Frankfurt, on the so-called Langen Franz . Here the 59-year-old Karl Julius Grätz created a large mosaic in 1902 in the historicist-Byzantine tradition with the depiction of the Archangel Michael with the cross shield in the victorious battle with the Lindwurm.

Through the mediation of the Frankfurt architect Heinrich Theodor Schmidt, planner and building supervisor for the construction of Lieser Castle on the Moselle near Bernkastel-Kues from 1884 to 1887, Karl Julius Grätz was commissioned to paint the central staircase and the castle chapel with large-scale wall paintings, on which he many famous monuments on the Moselle. After a professional renovation, his works shine in new splendor today.

On behalf of the widowed Empress Viktoria , the so-called Empress Friedrich, at the end of the 19th century, together with the Kronberg court decoration painter Jakob Hembus (1872–1949), he painted the so-called coat of arms hall of Kronberg Castle. This work was extensively and painstakingly restored in 2015/16.

In 1885 he restored the paintings that had been whitewashed almost 100 years earlier, such as the fresco on the ceiling by the Swiss painter Giovanni Battista Innocenzo Colombo (1717–1801) on behalf of the city of Frankfurt Emperor Karl VII on the Kaisertreppe in Römer under the theme The victory of virtue over vice . The whitewashing was due to the then emerging taste of classicism. This successful, widely appreciated renovation work by Karl Julius Grätz was lost in the bombs during the Second World War.

On behalf of the successful wine wholesaler, Greek consul in Mannheim and member of the Reichstag for the German conservative party Julius Menzer (1845-1917) [1] he painted his new wine bar in Frankfurt-Bockenheim, Leipziger Strasse 31/32 with Greek landscapes.

His work Zug der Künstler nach Frankfurt , a watercolor with Indian ink on paper, signed and dated lower left: "J Grätz in December 1862", dimensions 22.2 × 53.7 cm, has received from this commission. It is still offered in art dealers today.

  • LOVE AND RAUSCH, oil on canvas 41.5 × 80 cm; Signed and dated Karl J. Grätz lower right.
  • TWO SCENES FROM FALSTAFF, oil on canvas. Doubled, 110 × 155 cm, signed "KJ Grätz" lower right and inscribed "G." or "C." lower right. Grätz inv. ". This pair of paintings was created from a cycle of Shakespeare themes on behalf of the German Shakespeare Society for the Villa Belmonte near Eltville, the then seat of the society.
  • SCENE FROM THE BARBAROSSA SAGE, 28 × 75 cm; Col. India ink and pencil drawing, heightened with white; Signed lower right "Karl J. Grätz", on the reverse with the estate stamp of the German painter and university professor Wilhelm Amandus Beer (1837–1907)

literature

  • AKL, Vol. 55, 2008, 56
  • Thieme-Becker, Vol. 14, 1921, 479

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Version work from 1885 by the artist Karl Julius Grätz in the Kaiserdom Sankt Bartholomäus sacrament house with Atzmann
  2. ↑ TRAIN OF THE ARTISTS TO FRANKFURT, painting by Karl Julius Grätz
  3. ↑ LOVE AND RAUSCH, painting by Karl Julius Grätz
  4. ↑ TWO SCENES FROM FALSTAFF, painting by Karl Julius Grätz
  5. ↑ FROM THE BARBAROSSA SAGE, painting by Karl Julius Grätz
personal data
SURNAME Grätz, Karl Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH November 27, 1912
Place of death Frankfurt am Main