Theodor Maassen

Johann Michael Theodor Maassen (born February 1, 1817 in Aachen ; † May 27, 1886 in Düsseldorf ) was a German history and genre painter from the Düsseldorf School .

Life and reception

Maassen was born at Cöllenstrasse 1050 (Kleinkölnstrasse 14) in Aachen. At a young age he attended the Düsseldorf Art Academy , where he is noted as a pupil of Karl Ferdinand Sohn in 1834 . When the art-loving Prussian diplomat Atanazy Raczyński visited Düsseldorf on April 20, 1838, he noticed Maassen's "extremely diligently executed picture" A monk and a pilgrim in a landscape . As early as 1836 he recorded him as a student of his son in his work Die neuere deutsche Kunst . Maassen was one of the members of the artists' association Malkasten . In 1851 Maassen married Elisabeth Trimborn, who passed away in 1877. The writer Adalbert Stifter described Maassen's painting Der Klosterorganist , which he had seen at an exhibition of the Linz Art Association, as "as beautiful as there is little in our time and in art at all." Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter classified Maassen as a Düsseldorf Nazarene , as one of the painters whose work arose from the religious spirit of the masters of the Apollinarisberg .

Works (selection)

A monk and a pilgrim in a landscape , 1838
Boaz and Ruth , before 1843
The monastery organist

Individual evidence

↑ According to other information: Theodor Johann Wilhelm Maassen . - See artist index auction house Michael Zeller (letter M) , website in portal zeller.de , accessed on February 28, 2015

^ J. Fey: On the history of Aachen painters of the 19th century . In: From Aachen's prehistory. Announcements of the Aachener Verein for customers of the past . No. 4/8, Kommissions-Verlag der Cremer'schen Buchhandlung, Aachen 1897, p. 73 ( digitized in the archive.org portal )

^ Atanazy Raczyński : The newer German art. First volume: Düsseldorf and the Rhineland . Berlin 1836, p. 117 ( Google Books )

↑ Inventory list , file from the malkasten.org portal , accessed on February 28, 2015

↑ J. Fey, p. 74

^ Wilhelm Füssli : The most important cities on the Middle and Lower Rhine (continuation of the book Zurich and the most important cities on the Rhine ), second volume: about Rhenish art . Verlag des literary Comptoirs, Zurich and Winterthur 1843, p. 579 ( Google Books )

personal data
SURNAME	Maassen, Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Maassen, Johann Michael Theodor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German history and genre painter
DATE OF BIRTH	February 1, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH	Aachen
DATE OF DEATH	May 27, 1886
Place of death	Dusseldorf

[1] According to other information: Theodor Johann Wilhelm Maassen . - See artist index auction house Michael Zeller (letter M) , website in portal zeller.de , accessed on February 28, 2015

[2] J. Fey: On the history of Aachen painters of the 19th century . In: From Aachen's prehistory. Announcements of the Aachener Verein for customers of the past . No. 4/8, Kommissions-Verlag der Cremer'schen Buchhandlung, Aachen 1897, p. 73 ( digitized in the archive.org portal )

[3] Atanazy Raczyński : The newer German art. First volume: Düsseldorf and the Rhineland . Berlin 1836, p. 117 ( Google Books )

[4] Inventory list , file from the malkasten.org portal , accessed on February 28, 2015

[5] J. Fey, p. 74

[6] Wilhelm Füssli : The most important cities on the Middle and Lower Rhine (continuation of the book Zurich and the most important cities on the Rhine ), second volume: about Rhenish art . Verlag des literary Comptoirs, Zurich and Winterthur 1843, p. 579 ( Google Books )