Wilhelm Schmidt (art historian)

Wilhelm Schmidt (born July 18, 1842 in Birkenfeld , † July 15, 1915 in Herrsching am Ammersee ) was a German art historian .

Wilhelm Schmidt studied at the University of Munich and received his doctorate from Heinrich von Brunn in 1873 with a thesis on the painter Adriaen Brouwer . On September 1, 1874, he was the first trained art historian to work as a curator at the Royal Collection of Copper Engravings and Hand Drawings in Munich. On May 16, 1890, he became director of the collection. He also taught as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich . He retired on April 15, 1904.

He worked mainly with old German artists, but also with early Italian artists such as Giorgione and Piero della Francesca . His main work was the hand drawings of old masters published in nine deliveries in the Royal Kupferstich-Kabinett in Munich , which appeared from 1884. He wrote numerous articles for the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie .

Publications (selection)

• The life of the painter Adrian Brouwer. Critical illumination of the legends spread about him . Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig, 1873 (dissertation, digitized version ).
• Hand drawings by old masters in the Royal Cabinet of Copper Engravings in Munich . 4 volumes. Publishing Institute for Art and Science, Munich (1884–1893)

literature

• Ernst Wilhelm Bredt : Obituary for Wilhelm Schmidt . In: Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst 9, 1914/15, p. 189a.
• August Liebmann Mayer : Necrologist: Wilhelm Schmidt . In: Art Chronicle. Weekly for arts and crafts NF 26, 1915, Sp. 523-524 ( digitized version ).
• Konrad Weinmayer: Wilhelm Schmidt . In: Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft , Volume 39, 1916, pp. 64–65.
• Sabine Wölfel: Biographies . In: Michael Semff , Kurt Zeitler (Hrsg.): Artists draw - collectors donate. 250 years of the State Graphic Collection in Munich . Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2008, ISBN 978-3-7757-2179-0 , Vol. 3, p. 153.

Web links

Wikisource: Wilhelm Schmidt  - Sources and full texts