Margarethe Geiger

Margarethe Geiger, self-portrait (1804)

Margarethe Geiger (born May 24, 1783 in Schweinfurt , † September 4, 1809 in Vienna ) was a painter , draftsman and graphic artist .

Life

Margarethe Geiger came from a family of artists and traditionally received her first training in the workshop of her father Conrad Geiger (1751–1808), who was a recognized portrait painter. She helped her father, as was customary, with the execution of orders. This is evidenced by a jointly signed work from 1804. Her self-chosen model, however, was the painter Angelika Kauffmann , in whose classical style she painted a self-portrait that the Mainfränkisches Museum in Würzburg owns.

On the basis of Johann Kaspar Bundschuh's work The Dress Costumes Among the Country People of the Schweinfurt Gaue from 1796/97, Geiger created her own series of graphics with which she established a tradition of depicting Franconian costumes . The first works show examples of traditional costumes on couples. The series created in 1803, however, shows individual figures in costume. The artist also included their natural habitat. This consisted in part of the detailed reproduction of landscapes and localities in the home environment, but in part it was also taken from engraving templates. The artist's sister, Katharina Geiger , who also worked artistically in the family business , often served as a model .

During her further training with the court painter Christoph Fesel in Würzburg , she continued working on the traditional costumes. These were included in the “Würzburg” travel guide published from 1805 onwards. In Vienna, Artaria published a series of twelve sheets with Costumes in Würzburg by Geiger in 1808 , which was a great success and served as a template for further editions. Here, however, only the figurines came from Geiger, while the publisher added the background.

Margarethe Geiger was also successful in the portrait subject. Theodor Henner wrote about the self-portrait from 1804 in the Mainfränkisches Museum in Würzburg that the artist was well on the way to becoming “a second Angelica Kauffmann” (sic).

In 1806 Geiger moved to Munich , where she received several portrait commissions from the royal family. In 1807 she gained the favor of Maximilian I Joseph with a copy of the double portrait of the royal couple after Moritz Kellerhoven . This promised her a monthly grant of 30 guilders. Relieved of financial worries, she turned to further studies in the antique hall with the painter Andreas Seidl . During this time she was close friends with Sophie Reinhard , who later became court painter in Karlsruhe , and with Albrecht Adam, later known as a battle painter .

In 1808 all three friends moved to Vienna. Adam was able to study at the academy there, but women in art were not open to it. That is why Geiger and Seidel had to be content with the Füger house academy. Disappointed, Geiger noted after a visit to the Vienna Academy: "How I would have loved to sit down in the room of the hand drawings, if I had only been wearing pants!" No picture is known from the Vienna period. From her notes it appears that she was engaged in history painting of biblical motifs, which proves her ambition to achieve higher honors. History painting was given the absolute first place in the hierarchy of genres in art circles.

Margarethe Geiger was unable to develop her great talent, she died of typhus on September 4, 1809 in Vienna at the age of only 26, two years after her older role model, Angelika Kauffmann.

literature

• Elke Messer: Margarethe Geiger. In: The hidden museum, documentation of the art of women in Berlin public collections. Berlin 1987.
• Ferdinand Gademann: The drawing book of Katharina Geigerin and the artist family Geiger in Schweinfurt. Schweinfurt 1929.
• Lexicon of women artists. 1700-1900. Germany, Austria, Switzerland. Munich 2005, pp. 159–161.
• Agnete von Specht (Ed.): Women in Bavaria: Female Artists in Portrait - Margarete Geiger Friedrich Pustet Regensburg 1998, ISBN 3-7917-1597-6 , pp. 147-149.
• Friederike Kotouč (Ed.): Letters from the painter Margarete Geiger 1804 - 1809 Spätlese Verlag Nürnberg 1987 (No. 12/1987 of the Schweinfurt Museum Writings ) ISBN 3-924461-05-8

Web links

Commons : Margarethe Geiger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Margarethe Geiger in the catalog of the German National Library
• Margarethe Geiger