Willibrord Joseph Mähler

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Ludwig van Beethoven , portrait by Willibrord Joseph Mähler, 1803

Johann Willibrord Joseph Anton Mähler (born June 10, 1778 in Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein , † June 20, 1860 in Vienna ) was a German painter and composer .

Life

Mähler was a son from the marriage of the electoral privy councilor Franz Josef Maehler with Anna Johanna Maehler nee. Vacano. He was born on June 10, 1778 in Ehrenbreitstein and baptized on the same day in the Holy Cross Church there with the name Johann Willibrord Joseph Anton. The family moved to Koblenz in 1786 . From around 1800 he studied for three years with Anton Graff in Dresden and from 1803 at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts . After completing his studies, he became a civil servant in the Secret Cabinet Chancellery in Vienna, in 1820 "Official" in the House, Court and State Chancellery, later there as a Court Concepter and Court Secretary, from 1849 "Filing Protocol Director".

From 1819 he was also head of the lithographic office and in 1835 wrote the treatise Die Lithographische Druckerey of the State Chancellery .

Mähler's portraits of Beethoven and other Viennese composers

In the autumn of 1803, Mähler met his friend Ludwig van Beethoven through his colleague Stephan von Breuning , from whom he created a portrait that is now in the Beethoven memorial in the Pasqualati House . It depicts Beethoven with a lyre in his hand in front of an idealized landscape.

In 1814/15 he created several other portraits of musicians, among them again Beethoven and Johann Nepomuk Hummel , Antonio Salieri , Ignaz von Seyfried and Michael Umlauf , most of which later came into the possession of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde through Joseph Sonnleithner . Mähler originally compiled this collection for himself, as the journal Friedensblätter reported in 1815 :

“With our wish to make local artists and works of art, which are not known by merit, more widely known, we were very pleased with the news of Herr Mähler’s Tonkünstler Gallery, which we accidentally received from an art friend; we hasten to give our readers the notice and recommend them to their attention. Portrait painter Mähler, born in Ehrenbreitstein, studied for three years under the famous, now deceased Graff in Dresden, then at the local art academy, and since then has begun his artistic life in the local imperial city with happiness and honor. Among his larger works, which provide evidence of a rare talent and great mastery, we mention only the large oil painting of the emperor, which hangs in the Kanzleyaale of the court war council building, in which the official oaths are usually cast, and that by its resemblance and grandiosity of style captivates the eyes of connoisseurs. As for his gallery of excellent musicians, as a lover of the related art of music, he has created it for his own pleasure, and has already completed 13 portraits of living or recently deceased composers, of whom one does not know whether one more should admire the perfect resemblance or the true painting of the soul that speaks from them. It is the portraits of Salieri, van Beethoven, Weigl, Gyrowetz, Vanhal, Gelinek, Eybler, Hummel, Umlauf, Krommer, and others, which make up this rare gallery and which give music lovers such as painting the most surprising pleasure. The gallery is not closed, by the way, but is constantly being augmented by the intelligent artist with the portraits of his more distinguished art relatives. "

In addition, Mähler has published some songs and chamber music works.

literature

Web links

Commons : Joseph Willibrord Mähler  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Diocese archive Trier , Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein, Catholic parish Heilig Kreuz, church book No. 2, p. 261 No. 3
  2. ↑ See Klaus Martin Kopitz , Rainer Cadenbach (Ed.) And a .: Beethoven from the point of view of his contemporaries in diaries, letters, poems and memories. Volume 2: Lachner - Zmeskall. Edited by the Beethoven Research Center at the Berlin University of the Arts. Henle, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-87328-120-2 , pp. 564-567.
  3. ↑ Peace Leaves . A magazine for life, literature and art , Vienna, vol. 2, no. 63 of May 27, 1815, p. 252 (digitized version)
personal data
SURNAME Mähler, Willibrord Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mähler, Johann Willibrord Joseph Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION painter
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1778
PLACE OF BIRTH Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1860
Place of death Vienna