Wolfgang Heimbach

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Wolfgang Heimbach: Self-portrait as a detail of a picture for Friedrich III. of Denmark (1666)

Wolfgang Heimbach (* around 1605/1613 in Ovelgönne (Wesermarsch district); † around 1678/1679 in an unknown location) was a North German Baroque painter .

Life

Neither the date of birth nor the place of birth of Wolfgang Heimbach can be clearly clarified; the same applies to the date and place of death of Wolfgang Heimbach. He was born around 1605/1613 in Ovelgönne as the son of Thuringian- born fruit and grain writer Wolff Heimbach. The young Heimbach's talent for painting and drawing was discovered by Count Anton Günther from Oldenburg , who often stayed in his lordly castle Ovelgönne. The deaf and dumb Heimbach was sent to the Netherlands by the count to deepen his art . Around 1636/37 he worked for Bremen clients. As court painter he was temporarily in the service of Anton Günther, but also stayed in Italy from 1640 to 1651. Venice seems to have been his first stop and in 1645 he worked briefly for Pope Innocent X in Rome. In the same year he moved on to Florence , where he worked for the Medici noble house that ruled there . Between 1647 and 1650 he stayed in Rome again and then traveled on to Bohemia via Vienna . There he worked for Octavio Piccolomini at Náchod Castle . His return to Ovelgönne is documented for 1651. In April of the following year he got a six-month contract at the Oldenburg court with free accommodation and meals.

Count Anton Günther von Oldenburg on his gray apple crane
Tribute from the Estates (1666), Rosenborg Castle

From 1653 to 1662/63 he was the court painter to King Friedrich III. active in Copenhagen . From 1662 to 1667, the year Anton Günther died, he moved several times between Oldenburg and Copenhagen. It was during this time that the two works were created, which are best known in Oldenburg and Denmark. His most famous painting in Oldenburg shows Count Anton Günther on his horse crane. The original is lost and only one engraving in the chronicle of the count's reign written by Johann Just Winckelmann has survived. His best-known work in Denmark was created in 1666 and shows the tribute of the estates on the occasion of Frederick III's declaration of sovereignty. at Rosenborg Castle .

After the death of his ruler in Oldenburg, Heimbach returned to Copenhagen, but was unable to find another job there. When he was not employed as court painter in Oldenburg either, he entered the service of the Prince-Bishop of Münster , Christoph Bernhard von Galen, until his death in 1670 . The last painting by Heimbach known to date bears the year 1678. The year and place of death are unknown.

Works

Elegant wedding party (1637), Kunsthalle Bremen

Heimbach's works can be assigned to portrait and genre painting. Well-known are, for example, his portrait of Pope Innocent X ( Statens Museum for Kunst , Copenhagen) or the portrait of Queen Christina of Sweden (Museum Landscape Hessen Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel). An example of his genre paintings is “The Sick” ( Hamburger Kunsthalle , Hamburg). His oeuvre was strongly influenced by the works of the Caravaggists Gerrit van Honthorst and Georges de la Tour . In his nocturnal pieces, a point-like light source (e.g. a candle) is usually used to create the light-dark effect ( Galleria Borghese , Rome; Palazzo Doria-Pamphilj , Rome; Statens Museum for Kunst , Copenhagen). This light-dark effect is created in Heimbach's painting “Nocturnal Banquet” ( Kunsthistorisches Museum , Vienna) using numerous light sources.

In 2012, the Coesfeld City Museum acquired Heimbach's “Baptism of Christ in the Jordan” from 1679.

literature

  • Rolf Fritz:  Heimbach, Wolfgang. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 273 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Elfriede Heinemeyer: Heimbach, Wolfgang. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , pp. 293-295 ( online ).
  • Gertrud Schlueter-Göttsche: Wolfgang Heimbach. The painter of Anton Günther's time at the Oldenburg and Danish courts. In: Oldenburger Jahrbuch , vol. 65 Oldenburger Landesverein für Geschichte, Natur- und Heimatkunde, Oldenburg 1966, pp. 1–25, 25 fig.
  • The great lexicon of painting . Georg Westermann Verlag, Braunschweig 1982, p. 289.
  • Justus Lange: Simon Peter Tilmann and Wolfgang Heimbach - two north German painters and the Netherlands . In: Kirsten Baumann u. a. (Ed.): Knowledge transfer and cultural imports in the early modern period. The Netherlands and Schleswig-Holstein , Imhof, Petersberg 2020, ISBN 978-3-7319-0927-9 , pp. 248-261.

proof

  1. ↑ kunstmarkt.com, accessed on June 4, 2012

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang Heimbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Heimbach, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION North German baroque painter
DATE OF BIRTH around 1605
PLACE OF BIRTH Ovelgönne
DATE OF DEATH around 1678