Otto Knille

Otto Knille

Otto Knille (born September 10, 1832 in Osnabrück , † April 7, 1898 in Untermais near Meran ) was a German history painter from the Düsseldorf School .

biography

Otto Knille was the son of the Osnabrück law firm procurator Justus Georg Knille (1803-1881). He attended the Ratsgymnasium in Osnabrück. His artistic talent showed up early on. Knille received painting and drawing lessons from the Osnabrück landscape painter Julius Müller.

From 1848 he studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy with Karl Sohn , Theodor Hildebrandt and Wilhelm von Schadow . Another teacher Knilles was the history painter Emanuel Leutze . Fellow students were among others Wilhelm Busch in the class for antiques in 1850 and Theodor Mintrop in the class for history and genre painting in 1852 . When he entered the academy, Knilles was accepted into the Malkasten artists' association . There he was one of the founding members.

In 1853 he went to Paris and studied in the master's atelier with Thomas Couture and then from 1854 for four years in Munich with Karl von Piloty . Here he developed into a respected history painter . From 1860 to 1862 he stayed in Italy. King George V of Hanover achieved it as his sponsor that he worked in Hanover as a portraitist of the upper class from 1862. Here he made friends with the painter Friedrich Kaulbach . He painted mythical and fairytale pictures for Marienburg Castle .

From 1857 he was permanently friends with the Low German writer Hermann Allmers . In his house in Rechtenfleth in 1864 he painted historical pictures together with Heinrich von Dörnberg , including a portrait of Allmers. In 1865 Knille stayed in Bremen . A mural for Bremen Exchange was only sketchy while an image goddesses and Brema occasion of the visit of the Prussian King Wilhelm I was in the stock exchange statement.

From 1865 Knille worked as a history painter in Berlin and created numerous depictions of historical events and personalities in the historicizing style on behalf of the Prussian state government. In 1875 he became a teacher and in 1877 a professor at the Berlin Art Academy . He created his main work "Tannhäuser and Venus" in 1873. The work was acquired by the National Gallery.

During a cure in Karlsbad in 1874 he met Karl Marx and his daughter Eleanor Marx . There is also an exchange of letters between Knille and Arthur Fitger and the Leipzig “ Illustrirten Zeitung ”. He was also well acquainted with Theodor Fontane .

Otto Knille died at the age of 66 on a trip to the Alps in 1898 in Untermais near Merano. He was buried in Cemetery III of the Jerusalem and New Churches in front of the Hallesches Tor in Berlin. The preserved grave site is marked by a small inscription plate made of black granite.

Works

Tannhauser and Venus (1873)

Weimar 1803 (1884)

In Berlin, Knille wrote the monographs A painter's brooding about his art (1887) and the will and ability of painting (1897).

A well-known work is the painting “Weimar 1803” from 1884, which depicts a fictional meeting between Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and poets and thinkers of his time. a. Friedrich Schiller , Alexander von Humboldt , Wilhelm von Humboldt , Johann Gottfried von Herder , Christoph Martin Wieland , Carsten Niebuhr , Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher , Carl Friedrich Gauß , August Wilhelm Schlegel , August Wilhelm Iffland , Friedrich Maximilian Klinger , Friedrich Tieck , Jean Paul and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi .

Other works were The Challenge to Combat (1871), one of five velariums on the occasion of the victory celebration of the Franco-German War , painted on canvas, shown on the street Unter den Linden and Tannhauser and Venus (1873).

Books

• Hermann Allmers : Roman strolling days . With illustrations by Otto Knille. Schulzesche Buchhandlung, Oldenburg 1872
• A painter's brooding over his art . Gebrüder Paetel, Berlin 1887 Bauhaus University Weimar
• Open air . In: Art for everyone. Painting, sculpture, graphics, architecture . Bruckmann, Munich Vol. 12 (1896/97), pp. 33-38 and pp. 49-53
• Willingness and ability in painting . F. Fontane & C., Berlin 1897

literature

• Hermann Alexander Müller : Biographical Artist Lexicon. The most famous contemporaries in the field of fine arts of all countries with details of their works. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1882, pp. 302–303 ( digitized version ).
• Knille, Otto . In: Friedrich von Boetticher : painter works of the nineteenth century. Contribution to art history . Volume I, Dresden 1895, p. 711 f.
• Exhibition of works by the painters Albert Dressler and Otto Knille. November - December 1898 . Royal Museums in Berlin. National Gallery. Edited by Hugo von Tschudi. Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin 1898 (Royal National Gallery. Special exhibition. Series 2, 4) ( digitized version ).
• Brigitte Lohkamp:  Knille, Otto. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 186 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Ilsetraut Lindemann: From the life of the Osnabrück painter Otto Knille (1832–1898) . In: Osnabrücker Mitteilungen, Vol. 103, 1998, pp. 181-203.
• Lars Berg: Otto Knille (1832–1898). A history painter between the Düsseldorf School of Painting and the Berlin Academy. With a catalog of his works . Dissertation University of Düsseldorf 2013 ( digitized version ).
• Anna Ahrens: Knille, Otto In: Bénédicte Savoy, France Nerlich (Hrsg.): Paris apprenticeship years. A lexicon for training German painters in the French capital . Volume 2: 1844-1870 . Berlin / Boston 2015.

Web links

Commons : Otto Knille  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Otto Knille in the catalog of the German National Library
• Grave of Otto Knille. (Cemetery: Jerusalem and New Church, Cemetery III)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Julius Roeting made a portrait of the nineteen-year-old Knille in 1851, which can still be seen today in the gallery of the founding members of the Malkasten artists' association.
2. ↑ “Mr. Otto Knille, history painter from Berlin. Belvedere, Hirschensprungg [asse]. ”( Carlbader Curliste No. 245. Issued Sunday, August 20, 1874, p. 1).
3. ↑ Eleanor Marx to Jenny Longuet September 5, 1874: “We made another nice acquaintance, the painter Knille. A charming person whom Kugelmann looks down on. ”( The daughters of Karl Marx . Cologne 1981, p. 117). Karl Marx to Friedrich Engels September 18, 1874: “The painter Knille is also a very amiable fellow”. ( Marx-Engels-Werke . Volume 33, p. 117.)
4. ^ Otto Knille to Theodor Fontane December 31, 1899; Theodor Fontane to Theodor Fontane jun. November 2, 1894. Digitized
5. ↑ Hanns Gerd Rabe: Osnabrücker Art and Artists - 1900 to 1975  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 243.