Walter Besig

A portrait painted by his wife, Mary Lloyd

Memorial stone for Besig in Lindenau

Walter Besig (born October 7, 1869 in Mückenberg , Liebenwerda district , province of Saxony ; † May 1, 1950 in Lindenau , Hoyerswerda district , Saxony ) was a German painter .

Life

Walter Besig was born in 1869 as the son of mechanical engineer Louis Eduard Besig. His mother Clara Mathilde was the daughter of the veterinarian Gottlob Breitling. His hometown Mückenberg, today Lauchhammer-West district of Lauchhammer , was in the extreme east of the Prussian province of Saxony on the border with Niederlausitz ( province of Brandenburg ).

After attending the Neustädter Realschule in Dresden , Walter Besig had to learn the trade of a businessman and from 1884 to 1888 he completed a commercial apprenticeship at the higher commercial school in Dresden. He then applied against his father's will at the Dresden Art Academy , where he was a master student of Prof. Friedrich Preller the Younger. He later lived near Dresden in Goppeln , whose artist colony became a household name in art history. Here he worked with artists such as Georg Müller-Breslau , Otto Fischer and was friends with Carl Bantzer . The small circle included names such as Gotthardt Kuehl (whom he later followed into the artist group Die Elbier ), Carl Bantzer, Robert Sterl , Max Seliger , who later became director of the Leipzig Art Academy, and other well-known artists.

From 1896 to 1901 he made several trips to the Giant Mountains with Otto Fischer and Georg Müller-Breslau, among others. After that, he stayed only a short time in Dresden, where the Art Nouveau painting Herbststurm was painted in 1905 , for which he received good reviews without exception. In the same year he made a trip to Italy , which is reflected in his pictures. You can see his love for spaciousness and the artist's pictures became more colorful. In Italy he met the American painter Mary Scott Lloyd from Ramapo , Rockland County , NY , and married her.

From 1907 to 1910 he made a trip to the USA and returned with the urn of his suddenly deceased wife. The landscapes he created around Suffern reveal the peculiarity of his new place of residence. More and more often he stayed in the small, then the province of Silesia belonging Oberlausitzer village Lindenau , although his residence remained Dresden. In 1912 he married (Elisabeth Ida Flatter). His final resting place is in the local cemetery.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death in 2000, the Lindenau local history association reviewed the painter's life's work. There is a memorial stone on a small public green area opposite his former home.

His artistic work was strongly influenced by his ties to his homeland. Therefore he is considered a Schraden painter (native painter of the region around Schraden ) alongside Hans Nadler . In the painting “Kalmusteich”, for example, he captured the idyll of his home, just 100 meters from his home.

Quotes about Walter Besig

• Marianne Krause , diploma thesis 1988

Walter Besig was one of the young painters who was looking for new possibilities in painting. Dresden experiences works of open air painting and the paintings of French impressionists for the first time. Walter Besig was one of the young painters who were looking for new possibilities in painting. Dresden is the first to experience works of open-air painting and the paintings of French impressionists.

Besig painted in his own way with strong colors and lively brushstrokes. As the impressionists did, it captures the lighting beautifully. The color scheme is sunny, it is enriched by expressionistic insights without dissolving the object in the flickering atmosphere.

Works (selection)

Early spring in Goppeln, oil 1894 A tall rose bush Salesche, oil 1889 Poplars by the river Sketch of a negress in profile Calamus pond in Lindenau, 1942 Salesche, oil, 1892, private property Early spring in Goppeln, oil, 1894, private property of the family, badly damaged, 65 × 105 Between rocks, oil, no year, 136 × 147, Lausitz Art Collection, Senftenberg Blocks of stone, Giant Mountains, oil, private property Giant Mountains, oil, 1938 Early spring, oil, no year, 80 × 69, Lausitz Art Collection, Senftenberg Birch trees in the Giant Mountains, oil, private property Twilight under oaks, oil, 1903, 80 × 67, Lausitz Art Collection, Senftenberg Am Waldsaum, Riesengebirge, oil, 1900, 78 × 67, Lausitz Art Collection, Senftenberg Old pines with roe deer, oil, 131 × 128, Lausitz Art Collection, Senftenberg From the sketchbook, Giant Mountains, 1903, charcoal (heightened with white), family private property Sketch: Giant Mountains, chalk, heightened with white, private property of the family Giant Mountains, oil, 55 × 75, family property Felsenburg, Riesengebirge, 1902, oil, 100 × 105, Lausitz Art Collection, Senftenberg Capri, 1905, oil, whereabouts unknown Capri, 1906, oil, 66 × 88, Lausitz Art Collection, Senftenberg

Rock debris by the sea, Capri, no year, oil, whereabouts unknown Capri, Oil, 1905, Lausitz Art Collection, Senftenberg Capri, Felsenburg, 1906, oil, whereabouts unknown Sketch, Italy, private property Tivoli, 1906, oil, whereabouts unknown Odysseus, escaping the sea, Capri, oil, 1905, whereabouts unknown Under old olives, pastel, 1905, 64 × 81, Lausitz Art Collection, Senftenberg Old olives in Tivoli, oil, 1906, 88 × 113, Lausitz Art Collection, Senftenberg America, oil, private property, FRG America, oil, private property, FRG America, 1909, oil, private property, FRG From the sketchbook, March 18, 1909, chalk, private property of the family Sketches in the USA, 1909 Sketch, pencil (heightened white) probably his wife Mary Sketch, June 15, 1910, residential building Landscape, pastel, 1909, Lausitz Art Collection, Senftenberg Dancing girl under old trees, oil, 1905 Evening mood with poplars, oil, no year, Lausitz art collection, Senftenberg Old barns at the Kalmusteich, sketch, pastel (white heightened) A motif of the calamus pond, pastel (white heightened) Schraden, Pastel, 1901, 95 × 71, Lausitz Art Collection, Senftenberg Evening sun, oil, no year, 73 × 88, Lausitz Art Collection, Senftenberg

Web links

• Opus
• Pictures (reproduction by Dr. Jürgen Roloff)

Footnotes

1. ↑ Work directory  ( 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.  
2. ↑ Biography  ( 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.