Wilhelm Steinhausen

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Wilhelm Steinhausen (self-portrait 1910)

Wilhelm August Theodor Steinhausen (born February 2, 1846 in Sorau , Brandenburg province , today Poland , † January 5, 1924 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German painter and lithographer .

life and work

Matthäuskirche Berlin (built in 1844), which Steinhausen regularly visited as a child with his mother after the death of his father.

Childhood and youth in Sorau and Berlin

Steinhausen was the youngest son of the Sorau eye and garrison doctor August Friedrich Wilhelm Steinhausen and his wife Henriette Auguste, née. Naphtali, who converted to Protestantism when she married as a born Jew . Steinhausen's talent showed up early on.

After finishing school, Steinhausen began to study art at the art academy in Berlin . There he and Hans Meyer became a student of Eduard Daege , Eduard Holbein and Julius Schrader . Steinhausen actually wanted landscape painting as a major; but since only figure painting was currently offered, he registered for this subject.

Studies, trip to Italy and first years as a painter in Munich

In the fall of 1866, Steinhausen moved to the art academy in Karlsruhe . There he was u. a. Student of Ludwig Descoudres and Hans Canon . There in Karlsruhe he met Hans Thoma and became friends with him. Retreats in the Cistercian monastery Maulbronn in 1868 strengthen Steinhausen in his artistic focus on the religious genre.

Giotto "The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple". Steinhausen saw himself in the figure of Simeon taking Jesus in his arms and painted it in the Lukaskirche in Frankfurt . Steinhausen's birthday is the eve of Simeon Day.

After his mother's death, Steinhausen returned to Berlin in 1870. It originated here u. a. the design for a stained glass window in Geber's villa. Steinhausen got to know Ludwig Richter and worked with him for a short time in Loschwitz . The "Michael Beer Scholarship for History Painting", which was awarded to him in 1871, enabled him to study for a longer period in Italy. There he is also influenced by Giotto's frescoes . After his return, Steinhausen settled in Munich as a freelance artist in February 1873.

There were u. a. the illustrations for the “Chronica of a traveling student” by Clemens Brentano and, inspired by his father's job, his own eye disease and the conservative-religious family environment, the picture “The healing of the blind-born”. Due to negative reviews and the resulting lack of orders, Steinhausen left Munich and now lived alternately with his brothers Heinrich Steinhausen (Lindow) and Friedrich Steinhausen (Berlin). From 1875 Steinhausen tried in vain to win orders in Berlin. His participation in various exhibitions was ignored by the official art critic.

The Frankfurt time

In 1876 Steinhausen met the painter Friedrich Geselschap , who introduced him to the Frankfurt architect Simon Ravenstein . In November of the same year Steinhausen went to Frankfurt. There he met Peter Burnitz through Thoma . Partly in collaboration but also alone, the interiors of many villas were created in the following years.

In 1880 Steinhausen married Ida Wöhler from Berlin. Steinhausen had six children with her, u. a. Marie Paquet-Steinhausen . Six years later the family moved into their own villa, the current Steinhausen House . This domicile was part of an artists' estate that the architect Ravenstein designed and built. There he was the neighbor of his friend Thoma for years.

Landscape study, diaries 1909, Städel / Frankfurt

Larger orders took Steinhausen to Wernigerode (1890) and Vienna (1897). Since his z. Sometimes hardly anyone saw monumental wall paintings in private houses, Steinhausen began to illustrate numerous church hymn and prayer books from 1900 onwards. According to his own admission, he wanted to "... bring good pictures to the people". These commissioned works made a decisive contribution to strengthening Christian folk art. Over time, public contracts were no longer lacking: B. the design of the auditorium of the Kaiser-Friedrichs-Gymnasium (today: Heinrich-von-Gagern-Gymnasium ), Frankfurt am Main (1905), the murals of the Hospital Church in Stuttgart (1905) and the monumental interior painting (20 oil paintings and a ceiling fresco) of the Lukaskirche in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen (1913/18), donated by Rose Livingston .

Reconstruction of one of the monumental murals in the Lukaskirche in Frankfurt am Main that was burned in 1944 : The disciples on the way to Emmaus, to whom the Lord is close, after Easter 1914.

Steinhausen was a member of one of the oldest German artists' associations, the Frankfurter Künstlergesellschaft , which also exhibited a number of his works.

Schöneck Castle

In 1910 Steinhausen acquired Schöneck Castle in the Hunsrück , which became the artist's summer residence. However, from 1913 Steinhausen was unable to share this place with his wife as he had hoped. She became increasingly ill for a long time. He himself suffered a stroke in the spring of 1919, another in 1920 and became a nursing care case, ending his artistic work. Two of his daughters took care of continuous care at Schöneck Castle.

Ida Steinhausen died on November 19, 1923, Wilhelm Steinhausen on January 5, 1924.

Services

Steinhausen's artistic life's work includes not only the private monumental paintings and the furnishings of churches, villas and commercial buildings; he also created a vast number of portraits and landscapes and was also active as a sculptor . Steinhausen made several illustrations for books under the pseudonym Malerulus . Since his works were widespread in religious circles ( Schlatter Bible, hymn book illustrations, confirmation documents, art prints), he influenced the popular reception of religious motifs. With Hans Thoma Steinhausen also became acquainted with the Kronberg painter colony . Since he also placed his landscapes in a Christian-religious context or at least liked to go far beyond the simple representation in an allegory , he was certainly only marginally connected to this artists' association.

Honors

  • 1900: Awarded the title of professor
  • 1906: Honorary doctorate Dr. theol. hc through the University of Halle (Saale)
  • 1916 February 2: Awarding of the Grand Commander's Cross 2nd class of the Hessian order Stern von Brabant , on the occasion of his 70th birthday

Works (selection)

Catalog raisonné at Bückling: Wilhelm Steinhausen , pp. 396–460 and ill. In the appendix. In addition to the works mentioned in the article:

  • On the Havel , 1864
  • Stay with us, because evening will come , 1874, oldest major work, on Luke 24.29 EU
  • The Healing of the Blind Born , 1875, lithograph
  • Portrait of Hans Thoma
  • Crucifixion of Christ
  • Birth of our lord
  • Madonna under fir trees , 1890
  • Mural in the Huberhaus in Wernigerode, 1890
  • Landscape near Vienna with gathering clouds , around 1896
  • The seven bodily works of mercy frescoes in the Faniteum / Ober St. Veit, around 1897
  • Self-portrait , 1910
  • The disciples on the way to Emmaus, to whom the Lord is close , 1914, last major work before the First World War

  • Wilhelm Steinhausen with his wife

  • Departure from the Lord's Supper , 1874

  • The healing of the blind-born , 1915, resumption of the motif from 1873/75

  • The Judas kiss

  • Landscape studies, diary sheets 1909, Städel / Frankfurt

  • The Evil Thief , 1913, oil study (detail) for the mural Lukaskirche (Frankfurt am Main)

  • Schöneck in May , 1916

  • Children's paradise , around 1885/90, fresco

  • Design for a ceiling in a Ravenstein villa

literature

  • J. Rohr: On W. Steinhausen's 70th birthday . In: Archives for Christian Art . 34th year 1916, pp. 23–28 ( digitized version )
  • Oskar Beyer: Wilhelm Steinhausen. Berlin 1921.
  • Mareike Bückling: Wilhelm Steinhausen (1846–1924) as a landscape painter. European University Series 28, Art History, Volume 78. Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-8204-1075-9 .
  • David Koch: Wilhelm Steinhausen. A German artist. 2nd Edition. Heilbronn 1904.
  • Fried Lübbecke : Wilhelm Steinhausen. With 131 illustrations of paintings and drawings, including eight colored inset pictures . Artist's Monographs Volume 109.Bielefeld, Leipzig 1914.
  • Volker Mahnkopp: Emmaus. For the painting of St. Luke's Church in Frankfurt am Main by Wilhelm Steinhausen. Edited by Steinhausen Foundation Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt am Main 2008. (The first edition - with a small number of pictures and in black and white - was published in 2007, ISBN 978-3-8364-2296-3 .)
  • Wilhelm Reiner: Wilhelm Steinhausen, the artist and friend. Stuttgart 1926.
  • Heinrich Schütz: The stone house frescos of the auditorium of the Heinrich-von-Gagern-Gymnasium formerly Kaiser-Friedrichs-Gymnasium in Frankfurt am Main. Edited by Association of alumni and friends of the Heinrich-von-Gagern-Gymnasium. Frankfurt am Main 2006.
  • Steinhausen Foundation Frankfurt am Main (Ed.): Wilhelm Steinhausen. Draft drawings for the painting of St. Luke's Church in Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt am Main 1992. (With articles by Wilhelm Dieter Vogel.)
  • Esther Walldorf: Wilhelm Steinhausen and his daughter Marie Paquet-Steinhausen - a double portrait. Edited by the 1822 Foundation of the Frankfurter Sparkasse. Frankfurt am Main 2001.
  • Moment and eternity . Furche Verlag, Berlin 1919, 16 pictures by W. Steinhausen, with a foreword by the artist and an introduction by Prof. Aug.Beringer

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Steinhausen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ (see below) Bückling: Steinhausen , p. 396, drawing picture No. 1 Castle in a park from 1859.
  2. ↑ Fig .: Wilhelm Dieter Vogel: The painting of St. Luke's Church in Frankfurt am Main in the biblical work of Wilhelm Steinhausen. Ev.-luth. Lukas-Gemeinde Frankfurt (Ed.), Frankfurt am Main 1980, p. 18.
  3. ↑ (see below :) Lübbecke: Steinhausen , p. 25. Steinhausen succumbed to a serious eye disease after a hike and recovered from it.
  4. ↑ One of the exceptions was the painting of the splendid Bavaria store at Schillerstr. 2-4 (1883/84) at the Frankfurter Hauptwache , where Steinhausen designed exterior wall paintings of 24 famous Frankfurt personalities; the in-house Café Bauer , soon to be the most famous Frankfurt coffee house, was painted by Hans Thoma .
  5. ↑ He designed figures for the Kaiser Karl commercial building in downtown Frankfurt (Fig. In: Architektur & Ingenieur-Verein (Ed.): Frankfurt und seine Bauten . Frankfurt am Main 1886, p. 340).
  6. ↑ Gerd Ilte: A mural by Wilhelm Steinhausen in the Huberhaus , in: Wernigeroder Heimatblätter 1/1996, pp. 27–31.
personal data
SURNAME Steinhausen, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steinhausen, Wilhelm August Theodor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and lithographer
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1846
PLACE OF BIRTH Sorau , Brandenburg Province
DATE OF DEATH January 5, 1924
Place of death Frankfurt am Main