Seraphia von Löwenfinck

Seraphia von Löwenfinck (born April 11, 1728 in Fulda , † July 26, 1805 in Ludwigsburg ) was a German faience painter and entrepreneur.

Life

Maria Seraphia Susanna Magdalena Aloysia Schick was born as the daughter of the Fulda painter Johann Philipp Schick and his wife. Her father was one of the co-founders of the local faience factory. On October 28, 1747, she married the ceramic painter Adam Friedrich von Löwenfinck , who worked as a court enamel painter in Fulda with an annual salary of 400 thalers.

In 1745 Seraphia von Löwenfinck Fulda went to Weißenau with her first husband, where he tried to set up his own factory. Then they lived in Höchst (1746–1749). Here her husband founded the Höchst Porcelain Manufactory together with Johann Christoph Göltz . In 1748 Seraphia von Löwenfinck gave birth to her first child, Maria Apollonia, the first daughter of a total of four daughters and seven sons from their two marriages.

Because of financial disputes with the elector, Adam Friedrich Löwenfinck was dismissed on February 19, 1749 and the family moved to Koblenz at short notice, where the couple wanted to start their own business in nearby Schönbornlust . When this failed, the family moved to Strasbourg in May 1749 . There Adam Friedrich Löwenfinck was employed by Paul Hannong as head of his faience factory in Haguenau , but died in 1754.

In 1762 Seraphia von Löwenfinck married the 14 years younger soldier Daniel de Beckè. Professionally, she separated from the Hannong family, was compensated with 800 guilders and left Strasbourg. The couple moved to Ludwigsburg with their children. Her husband de Beckè was made lieutenant there in 1762, continued his career and died with the rank of lieutenant colonel at the age of 59 in 1801.

Seraphia von Löwenfinck / de Beckè survived her second husband by almost 4 years and was 77 years old.

plant

Seraphia Schick probably learned the craft of ceramic painting through lessons from her father. At the age of 17 she made a “masterfully painted faience bowl” , a kind of journeyman's piece for the Fulda manufactory.

After her first husband died, Seraphia von Löwenfinck independently took over the management of the manufactory in Haguenau and, for a time, of the parent company in Strasbourg. After her second marriage, she went to Ludwigsburg, where the local faience and porcelain factory was currently in a phase of reorganization. Seraphia de Beckè applied there as an arcanist and received the position of condirector of the manufactory. She already knew the director of the manufactory, Joseph Jakob Ringler , from the Hannong manufactory in Strasbourg. In the porcelain factory in Ludwigsburg, she was responsible for the faience department with 25 to 30 workers, which was soon in the black.

From January 21, 1777, Seraphia von Löwenfinck / de Beckè independently managed the faience department of the Ludwigsburg porcelain factory on the instructions of Duke Carl Eugen . The salary was guaranteed 420 guilders and could be up to 600 guilders, provided that more profit had been made. Seraphia de Beckè's family was also given a free apartment, which was located in the factory's administration building. The salary also included wood for heating.

At the end of her professional career in 1795 at the age of 67, Seraphia von Löwenfinck / de Beckè fought for the full payment of the severance payment to which she was entitled of 4,000 guilders until 1799 by judicial process.

Works attributed to Seraphia von Löwenfinck can be found in the Stadtmuseum in Fulda, in Ludwigsburg in the Städtisches Museum and in the Irene and Peter Ludwig Collection . In Fulda it is a faience plate with a saint showing either Saint Nepomuk or Saint Aloysius, in Ludwigsburg it is a faience bowl with flowers, which was made around 1770, and in the Ludwig collection it is an overglaze painting with fleurs fines on a plate on which a tulip can be seen as the center of a flower bouquet and which comes from the Hannong workshop from the period between 1749 and 1754.

literature

• Löwenfinck, Seraphia from in: General Artists Dictionary . = Artists of the World. AKL online. de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2004ff., ISBN 978-3-598-41800-6 , Doc-ID: 00117515T
• Rainer Rückert: Biographical data of the Meißner manufacturers of the 18th century. Bavarian National Museum, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-925058-13-3 , pp. 171-173
• Albert Sting: History of the city of Ludwigsburg. Volume 1: From the prehistory to the year 1816. 2nd edition. Ungeheuer and Ulmer, Ludwigsburg 2005. ISBN 3-930872-25-0 , pp. 568-569.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rückert (1990), p. 173
2. ↑ Article from Lexikon der Künstlerinnen quoted in the article Löwenfinck, Seraphia from in AKL-online .
3. ↑ Sting (2005), p. 261
4. ↑ Sting (2005), p. 568
5. ↑ Article Löwenfinck, Seraphia from in the AKL-online