Constantine Cretius
Konstantin Johann Franz Cretius (born January 6, 1814 in Brieg in Silesia ; † July 26, 1901 in Berlin ) was a genre , history and portrait painter as well as professor and full member of the Berlin Academy .
life and work
As a boy, Cretius was afflicted by a serious illness, but was able to occupy himself with coloring pictures, which awakened his inclination for art. In 1833 he succeeded in coming to the Academy in Berlin and trained under Karl Wilhelm Wach in such a way that in 1836 he was able to exhibit two much-praised pictures - The Knight and his Love and Richard the Lionheart . In 1838 Certius received the Great State Prize of the Prussian Academy of the Arts when he began his study trip in September of the same year with a three-year stay in southern Europe. After a few pictures with a romantic content, he obtained a travel grant with Jacob's mourning for Joseph and went via Brussels and Paris to Italy , which he wandered through to Palermo . In Rome several excellent genre pictures from the local folk life were created in 1842:
- Ave Maria
- Wine festival on Ischia
- Italian beggars
- Public writer
- A corner lawyer
- A doctor in Rome
Returning to Berlin, he painted the Resurrection of Christ , an altarpiece for Freistadt in Silesia, and the historical genre pictures:
- Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm in the Hague (1860),
- the Salzburg Protestants in Berlin under Friedrich Wilhelm I on April 30, 1732
- Louis XIV with Mazarin's niece Maria Mancini playing chess .
In 1846 King Friedrich Wilhelm IV sent him to Constantinople to portray the Sultan Abd ul Medschid , who rewarded him with the Nischan Iftikhar Order. Later he continued up to the most recent times with partly Italian, partly with historical genre pictures, which are of noble, simple composition, deep feeling and harmonious coloring. This includes:
- the implementation of the well-known anecdote by Louis XIV: » L 'état, c'est moi! «,
- Captured cavaliers before Oliver Cromwell (1867, Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin),
- Evening during the Carnival in Rome ,
- Festival of the Madonna in the Roman mountains ,
- On the honeymoon in Italy ,
- Leisure travelers in Switzerland among others
He also solved the task of decorating the Sonnenburg Palace of the Order of St. John with three pictures from the history of this order in a satisfactory manner.
family
He married Johanna Crüsemann (1826–1878) on May 25, 1884 in Berlin. The later Prussian Lieutenant General Richard von Cretius (1849–1925) emerged from the marriage, who married Marie Crüsemann (1854–1915) on April 13, 1874 and was raised to the hereditary Prussian nobility on September 2, 1901 .
literature
- Stéphanie Baumewerd: Cretius, Constantin Johann Franz. In: Savoy, Bénédicte and Nerlich. France (ed.): Paris apprenticeship years. A lexicon for training German painters in the French capital. Volume 1: 1793-1843 , Berlin / Boston 2013, pp. 48–50.
- Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Briefadeligen houses. 1907. First year, Justus Perthes, Gotha 1906, p. 122.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Preussische Akademie der Künste (PrAdK 0086), minutes of the meetings of the Academic Senate as well as copies of the letters from the Academic Senate to the Ministry of Culture 1838: 4th Aug. 1838 Announcement of the winner of the competition in painting: Constantin Cretius (pupil of Wach). Sept. 15, 1838 Beginning of Cretius' study trip
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cretius, Constantine |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cretius, Konstantin Johann Franz |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 6, 1814 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Brieg |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 26, 1901 |
| Place of death | Berlin |