Painter Nolten

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Title page of the first print

Painter Nolten , a novella in two parts , is a romantic artist novel by Eduard Mörike , which was available in manuscript on July 23, 1830 and was published in print in 1832 by Emanuel Schweizerbart's Verlagshandlung Stuttgart.

content

prehistory

Theobald Nolten grew up in a rectory. The mother died early. With his sister Adelheid, Theobald visits the Rehstock, a ruined, godforsaken castle ruin. In it he meets Elisabeth, a virgin who has secretly withdrawn from her band of gypsies - although she "never suffered any harm". Elisabeth is sick. When her suffering overcomes her, she moves away from people and drives it away with song. Elisabeth doesn't want to spend the night in the rectory, but rather move on. She can no longer find her home. It has been disguised for her.

Theobald on the day of the tour had to Rehstock guessed that he would meet Elizabeth. The Virgin is wonderfully like a person in a painting that is deposited in the attic of the rectory.

Theobald is informed by the father about the dusty painting. It shows Theobald's aunt Loskine, the wife of his uncle Friedrich on his father's side. The uncle was a painter and the aunt was a gypsy who died in childbirth after Theobald's cousin was born . When the cousin was seven years old, she was kidnapped by her mother's relatives. Uncle Friedrich couldn't get over that and is said to have perished during a trip at sea.

At court

Theobald's father dies. The forester of Neuburg takes in the orphans. Theobald, talented and hardworking, became a painter.

Duke Adolph, the king's brother, promoted the talented young painter Theobald Nolten and gave him access to the house of Count von Zarlin. There Theobald met and fell in love with the Count's beautiful sister, the young widow Countess Constanze von Armond.

At home, however, in Neuburg, far away from the count's castle, sits Agnes, Theobald's bride, the “modest daughter” of the now decrepit forester. Agnes is not healthy either. She had a severe nervous disease behind her, during which she sometimes even detested the bridegroom. The pretty young girl is exchanging letters with his groom Theobald - as she thinks. The letter writer, however, is Theobald's best friend Larkens, inclined to intrigue and an actor by trade.

Countess Constanze, who reciprocates Theobald's love, gets to see letters from Agnes through a clever move by Larkens (who wants to drive a wedge between Constanze and Nolten and that he thinks back on Agnes), discovers the "betrothed relationship" and reacts jealous. So she is jointly responsible for the fact that Theobald and Larkens are imprisoned because they are accused of having mocked the regent's father in a performance in the Zarlin house. According to her statement, Countess Constanze is also the one who later initiates the release of the two artists who were imprisoned for lese majesty . One thing is certain - again from the background - that Constanze, in agreement with the art-loving councilor , continuously supports Theobald, who is enjoying his freedom again.

Larkens' stay at court is no longer possible after his release from offending imprisonment. Very sensitive as he is, he moves away. A few days later, Theobald found the correspondence between Larkens and Agnes with a confession from his departed friend. Larkens speaks into Theobald's conscience in an accompanying letter. Let him turn away from the nobility and return to Agnes.

Countess Constanze also has a lot to do well. She welcomed Theobald's return, nobly released him and gave him “a precious necklace” as a parting. Theobald repentedly ended his relationship with the Countess and hurried into the arms of his dear bride in Neuburg in four days.

Agnes suffers from a mental illness, "a silent madness", which is, however, associated with a remarkable clairvoyance : she no longer wants to marry because she feels rejected by Nolten. Perhaps she also suspects that the love letters she received didn't even come from Nolten. Her father pressures her to marry now, so she travels with Nolten to his future place of work.

The estate

The couple never arrives. On the way, Theobald meets Larkens, who works as a carpenter Joseph for a master carpenter. During the encounter in a crowded pub, neither of them exchange a word. Larkens, tired of life - he has probably been plotting to commit suicide for a long time - takes up poison immediately after the encounter. The sudden appearance of the friend was the decisive factor in suicide. The President, who recognized Larkens' artistic qualities and who appreciates his staging of Ludwig Tieck's comedy “The Inverted World”, befriends Nolten because of their shared mourning for Larkens. The small tour company is accommodated in the president's estate nearby.

Agnes, the melancholy mystery being, is really very sick. She feels persecuted by the gypsy Elisabeth and regards her as a rival, because Theobald claims her for herself.

Theobald makes the mistake of his life. He confesses the truth to the beloved bride. He didn't write the letters. Agnes immediately sees the bridegroom split in Theobald and the dead Larkens. From then on she only speaks confused things and keeps her distance from the worried, considerate Theobald. When the dreaded Elisabeth is seen near the country house, the measure is full. Agnes makes two suicide attempts. The second succeeds. She plunges into the old well. It doesn't take long for Theobald to die on the grounds of the estate. You can find the dead man in front of the old chapel's door. The painter must have been terrified of Elisabeth's ghost. At least two witnesses would have the president believe that. The ghost must have appeared to Theobald "like a column of smoke". According to witnesses, Theobald's soul turned into just such a column of smoke.

Only after Nolten's death does the letter from one of his patrons, the court councilor, arrive. He announced that he was "Uncle Friedrich" and that Elisabeth was his daughter and thus Theobald's cousin.

It is also reported that Elisabeth was found dead a few days before Nolten's death near the estate - probably died of exhaustion. Countess Constanze - sick for a long time and dead all over the world - did not survive the three dying for long.

Conclusion

Omnipresent fatigue is rampant and the longing for death is fulfilled. After all, all young people died. Only a few old people stay alive.

Poetry

In the prose text Eduard Mörike has inserted poems that have become famous and popular, including Der Feuerreiter and:

Excerpt from p. 330 in the first edition of the novel
Spring lets its blue ribbon
Flutter through the air again
Sweet, well-known scents
Forebodingly strip the land;
Violets are already dreaming
Want to come soon;
Listen, a soft harp sound from afar! - -
Spring, yes it's you!
Spring, yes it's you!
I heard you!

Late Romanticism

The longing for death of all protagonists appears to be characteristic of late Romanticism; then the motifs: a ruined castle ruin, an enchanted fountain into which one throws oneself to death, an isolated old chapel with the spirits of the dead, the country of Orplid with the city of the same name in it, the Mummelsee , the fairy children , the shining woman . Above all, moonlight does not save. The mysterious charms of living on towers are addressed.

Beyond the external, the text is deeply committed to Romanticism; especially in its distance from rationalism and its proximity to mysticism .

Second version

In 1859 Mörike began a revision of the painter Nolten . In doing so, he took out passages that were too poorly motivated and adapted the form of language to his new sense of style. But he couldn't find a new coherent storyline. Since he had decreed that the first version could not be reissued, Julius Klaiber undertook to combine the new version with the second part of the first version with as few interventions as possible.

Radio play adaptations

reception

  • In the summer of 1875 Nietzsche said of Mörike: Now he has no thoughts at all: and I can only stand poets who, among other things, also have thoughts, such as Pindar and Leopardi .
  • Hermann Hesse , one of Mörike's greatest admirers, vividly walked through the interior of the painter Nolten in just a few words in 1911 . Hesse calls the work a wonder book and praises the neatly reproduced color scheme and the permanently present limbo of anticipation and sultry fate .
  • It is also Hesse who on March 27, 1916, in his poem When Rereading by the Painter Nolten, lovingly, poetically and very precisely, evokes the Mörike reading feeling in a loving, poetic and very brief way like the old masters.
  • According to Holthusen, the painter Nolten , who already sold poorly after 1832, is neither a development novel nor an artist novel.
  • Mörike's prayer , the second stanza of which can be found in the work (published again together with the first stanza in 1848), was set to music by Max Bruch years after his death under No. 4 in his Nine Songs for Mixed Choir, op. 60.

literature

First printing

source

  • Eduard Mörike: painter Nolten . In: Ders .: Complete works in four volumes. [On the basis of the original prints, ed. by Herbert G. Göpfert.] Hanser, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-446-13464-6 , Vol. 2, pp. 423-818.

Secondary literature

  • Friedrich Nietzsche: Leftover fragments 1875/76
  • Ulrich Kittstein: Civilization and Art. An investigation into Eduard Mörike's “Painter Nolten” St. Ingbert 2001
  • Stefani Kugler: Art Gypsies. Constructions of the 'Gypsy' in German literature in the first half of the 19th century Trier 2004, pp. 252–318
  • Volker Michels (Ed.): Hermann Hesse: A literary history in reviews and essays. Frankfurt 1975, ISBN 3-518-36752-8
  • Volker Michels (Ed.): Hermann Hesse: The poems. Frankfurt 1977, ISBN 3-518-36881-8
  • Hans Egon Holthusen : Eduard Mörike. Reinbek 2000, ISBN 3-499-50175-9
  • Jean Firges : Eduard Mörike. Poet of the night. Sonnenberg, Annweiler 2004, ISBN 3-933264-38-3 (in particular about the female figure of the gypsy in MN)
  • Kindler's Literature Lexicon . Edited by Heinz Ludwig Arnold . 3rd, completely revised edition. 18 vol. Stuttgart: Metzler 2009, vol. 11, pp. 489–491 (article on painter Nolten by Stefan Börnchen). ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8

Web links

Commons : Maler Nolten  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ She writes: "So find out, it was Constanze, whose cunning made your harmless part of that last evening entertainment in our house so difficult for you, and - so would the anger of a woman, whose decisive love believed she had been betrayed unprecedented - [...] Heaven found a wonderful means early on to frighten me, to chastise me. Now suddenly transformed into a foolish child, pursued by gods and spirits, I hurry in my heart's trouble to free you. It succeeded, and by the same hand to which I first betrayed you. " Painter Nolten 2nd part at zeno.org , p. 235
  2. ↑ Source, p. 721
  3. ↑ Source, p. 452
  4. ↑ Nietzsche Fragments 1875–1879, Volume 2 - Chapter 9
  5. ↑ Michels anno 1975, p. 273, 4. Zvo
  6. ↑ Michels anno 1977, p. 410
  7. ↑ Holthusen, p. 92, 7. Zvo