Painter prince

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Painter prince is a name for the successful salon painters of the Wilhelminian era , who in the 1870s and 1880s - with the rapid growth of a solvent, self - portrayed upper -class private public - determined the taste in the major art centers such as Munich , Vienna , Düsseldorf and Krakow . Above all, they painted magnificent, large-format portraits on behalf of high-ranking personalities and princes, but unlike the court painters with their lifelong employment, they were exhibition artists and independent cultural entrepreneurs with clever marketing strategies. They often became idols of their time. Having become rich in the boom of the founding years , they presented this wealth through elaborate self-presentation strategies.

Friedrich August von Kaulbach: Portrait of Eleonora Duse

Examples

According to their origins, many painter princes were sons of small employees, sons of craftsmen or farmers. Sometimes they were ennobled , which gave the term painter prince an additional meaning that went beyond the pompous, prince-like lifestyle they staged. Friedrich August von Kaulbach , one of the best-paid German portrait painters, inherited the title of nobility from his father, the history painter Wilhelm von Kaulbach . The painter princes in Munich who were ennobled because of their achievements or successes include Franz von Lenbach (initially in the fictitious nobility, actually ennobled in 1882), Franz von Stuck (1906) and Frederic Leighton (1886 Baron Leighton) in England. Hans Makart set up a studio in Vienna on the orders of Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Kaulbach, Lenbach and Stuck were also professors at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich .

Andreas Achenbach and Friedrich Klein-Chevalier in Düsseldorf, Jan Matejko in Krakow and Mihály von Munkácsy were also named as painter princes . Munkácsy, born in today's Slovakia , lived in Paris for a long time ; he had first painted Bible scenes and realistic pictures of the everyday life of little people. In Prussia , Anton von Werner , who created comparable pictures but still embodied the type of court painter, maintained contact with all walks of life even at the peak of his success.

Makart's studio around 1875
Mihály Munkácsy in his studio in Paris

New marketing strategies

The portraits they painted on behalf of princes and statesmen were exhibited in their own studios or at large exhibitions (salons) and tailored to the tastes of the rich public ("salon painting"). The portraits of celebrities were also effective tools of advertising; Lenbach painted 80 Bismarck portraits alone. Almost all painter princes also created self-portraits in princely poses. In addition, allegorical or large-format history pictures were created . The art of salon appealed primarily to the upper class, accustomed to pomp in the Catholic parts of Germany and in Austria-Hungary . The studios of the painter princes were transformed into exclusive showrooms, they were furnished with valuable furniture and exotic finds. Her exclusive celebrations with a select audience became famous. The open-air painting of Impressionism , which also spread in Germany after 1880, however, led to the importance of salon painting rapidly declining.

"Prince of painters" in today's usage

Peter Paul Rubens was only considered an artist prince in the consciousness of posterity. Even today one speaks again of painter princes, B. in relation to Ernst Fuchs or Markus Lüpertz because of the careful staging of their appearances.

literature

  • Doris Lehmann, Katharina Chrubasik (ed.): Painter princes. Catalog for the exhibition in the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany Bonn. Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-7774-3138-3 .
  • Bernhard Maaz, Anne Schulten (ed.): In the temple of art. The artist myths of the Germans. Exhibition catalog, Staatliche Museen Berlin. Munich 2008.
  • Eva Mendgen: Franz von Stuck 1863–1928. "A prince in the realm of art" . Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-8228-8953-9 .
  • Winfried Ranke: Franz von Lenbach. The Munich painter prince. Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-462-01783-7 .
  • Hans J. Hansen (Ed.): The pompous age. Between Biedermeier and Art Nouveau. Art, architecture and handicrafts in the second half of the 19th century. Oldenburg 1970.

Individual evidence

  1. The fantastic painter prince is dead , in: wienerzeitung.at, November 9, 2015.
  2. Genius Markus Lüpertz celebrates his 75th birthday , in: Die Welt, April 23, 2016.
  3. Info on the exhibition