Karl Wilhelm Wach
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Karl Wilhelm Wach (born September 11, 1787 in Berlin ; † November 24, 1845 ibid), mostly called Wilhelm Wach in his day , was a German painter and a representative of classicism .
Life
Wilhelm Wach studied art at the academy in his hometown, where he was a student of the painter Karl Kretschmar . Thanks to his intercession, Wach was commissioned to create an altarpiece for the Paretz village church at the age of twenty ; 1807 a "Christ with four apostles" was created.
Four years later, Wach made his artistic breakthrough with his portrait of Queen Luise .
At the outbreak of the Wars of Liberation from 1813 to 1815 he joined the newly founded Prussian Landwehr , like many artists of his time, and became an officer in the fourth Kurmark Landwehr regiment under Count Tauentzien . After Napoleon's exile to Elba, his regiment lay on the Lower Rhine in 1814. This enabled the painter to go on a study trip to the Netherlands. After the final victory over Napoleon, Wach left the army and settled in Paris .
Wilhelm Wach became friends with Wilhelm Hensel and the two became students of Jacques Louis David . After David was banned from France as a former supporter of the French Revolution after the Restoration , both studied with Antoine-Jean Gros . Wach was introduced to the technique of French classicism through his teachers. After receiving a scholarship from King Friedrich Wilhelm III. In 1817, Wach traveled through Switzerland to Italy, mainly studying artists from the Quattrocento . The greatest influence - according to his own statements - was caused by Raphael .
After two years, Wach returned to Berlin in 1819 and settled there as a freelance artist. The first big order was to design the Royal Theater . Wach created a ceiling painting with the nine muses for it ; (The copperplate engraver Joseph Caspar created a well-known engraving of it in 1877).
By order of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. A large hall with an apartment was made available to Wach, in which he then set up his studio . Due to his influence and his many students, this studio soon became a school. By 1837 he had almost seventy students, almost all of whom later made careers as artists.
His activity as a teacher did not affect his artistic work in the least. Wach was soon honored with the title of professor and made a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of the Arts in 1820 . On the occasion of his fortieth birthday, Wach officially became a royal court painter .
The official art critics, but also the public, valued Wach above all as a portraitist in the style of Raphael. Wach should not be seen as a brilliant creator of new ideas, but rather as an eclectic . He knew how to speak witty about art and thus had a stimulating effect on Berlin's art life. For ten years he was a member of the Commission for the Arrangement of the Collections in the Royal Museum . From 1840 on, the Royal Prussian Academy of the Arts appointed him its vice director, a position he held until the end of his life. From 1826 he was a member of the Lawless Society in Berlin .
Karl Wilhelm Wach, like his sister Henriette Paalzow , was buried in the Friedrichswerder cemetery in Berlin-Kreuzberg . However, the family grave is no longer preserved.
Works (selection)
- Portrait of the Prussian Major General Carl von Clausewitz (around 1818)
- The Last Supper and the Resurrection of Christ (in the evangelical St. Peter and Paul Church in Moscow)
- Madonna and Child (started in 1825 as a wedding present from the city of Berlin for Princess Luise of Prussia, completed in 1827 as an allegory. Foundation of the Christian Church )
- The three heavenly virtues (1830, Friedrichswerder Church in Berlin)
- Christ with his disciples
- Psyche surprised by Cupid
- A life-size nymph
- John in the Desert (1838)
- Judith with the head of Holofernes (1838)
literature
- Stéphanie Baumewerd: Awake, (Karl) Wilhelm . In: Bénédicte Savoy, France Nerlich (ed.): Paris apprenticeship years. A lexicon for training German painters in the French capital . Volume 1: 1793-1843 . De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-029057-8 , pp. 298-300.
- Hermann Arthur Lier : Awake, Karl Wilhelm . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 41, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, pp. 774-776.
- Anselm Schubert: Wilhelm Wachs "Allegory. Foundation of the Christian Church" (1827). On the career of a religious image in political restoration, in: Yearbook of the Berlin Museums 2010
- The muses in the royal theater in Berlin . Invented and painted by Karl Wilhelm Wach, engraved in copper by J. Caspar. With accompanying text by Dr. Max Jordan. New edition. Wasmuth, Berlin 1877 digitized
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Awake, Karl Wilhelm |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wake up, Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 11, 1787 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 24, 1845 |
| Place of death | Berlin |