Georg Melchior Kraus
Georg Melchior Kraus ( * July 26, 1737 in Frankfurt am Main, † November 5, 1806 in Weimar ) was a German artist. He was a pupil of Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder, painter, educator and entrepreneur and was a friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He is one of the equally well-known as popular forming German artists of the 18th century.
Life
Kraus was the sixth of nine children to the world, but of which five died before they were one year old. His parents Cornelia Kraus born Paulsen and Johann Georg Kraus led the Gasthof "Zur white snakes " in the sandy alley in Frankfurt. The boy was eight years old when his father married again after the early death of her mother.
From 1759 to 1762 about the court painter Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder formed at the Kassel court of the Landgrave Frederick II in his studio Georg Melchior Kraus painter. In November 1762, Georg Melchior traveled to Paris as one of the most important engraver of the period, Johann Georg Wille to educate yourself. In Paris Kraus came in contact with one of the most respected artists of the time, the genre painter Jean -Baptiste Greuze. in Paris, he soon led the title of " peintre de genre familier de S. A. S. le prince Eveque de Bourg Wirsching ".
At the end of the year 1766 Kraus returned to Frankfurt and worked as a private teacher of drawing and genre painter. His contacts in France he would continue, he was listed in 1776 on the preparation of the Colisee as a genre painter. In Frankfurt he gave next to Sophie von La Roche, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi and others, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lessons in drawing and he sought in a petition to the Council of the Imperial City on April 2, 1767 in vain for the establishment of an academy of painting. It was followed by several years in which he moved to changing clients and repeatedly returned to Frankfurt. Through the intercession of his Parisian colleagues study polluters Kraus in 1768 as a foreign member of free men in the " Imperial. Royal. Engraving Academy " in Vienna appointed. In the summer of 1770, he traveled for one and a half years in Switzerland, but then changed back the stays that led him to Erfurt.
From there Kraus found in 1773 in contact with people such as Christoph Martin Wieland and Friedrich Justin Bertuch who introduced the artist at the Weimar court. After several brief visits Kraus eventually moved permanently in the fall of 1775 to Weimar, where he spent apart from smaller travel, the entire second half of life. He became friends with Friedrich Justin Bertuch, the then private secretary and Privy Purse of the young Duke Carl August of Saxe- Weimar. Together ranged Kraus and Bertuch 1774 in Weimar a memorandum " draft with few resources here to be erected free drawing school " field. In 1775 he taught on a visit to his hometown Frankfurt Goethe about the conditions in Weimar, before this received an invitation from the Duke Carl August, who was one of his first acts in 1776, the " Princely characters school" in Weimar founded and funded. For the first director Georg Melchior Kraus was appointed and this was up to his death. In addition to this taught, inter alia, the sculptor Martin Gottlieb Klauer and the painter Konrad Horny. Georg Melchior Kraus 1784 accompanied Johann Wolfgang von Goethe at its third Harzreise ( 8 August to 14 September 1784) to capture geological studies in drawings.
1786 gave Georg Melchior Kraus and the enterprising publisher Johann Friedrich Justin Bertuch, who also owned a company founded in 1780 floristic flowers and Galanteriewarenfabrik, the "Journal of the modes " out to the Georg Melchior Kraus to every issue which still attractive and sought-after, created partly colored copper panels or left to create his art school, which still increased the value of the magazine. Cosmopolitan and with skill understood both, the Journal announced soon on the borders of Germany and to make popular and to let it be at that time one of the most successful journalistic enterprise.
Driven by the success Bertuch began in 1790 with the " picture book for children ", for which Georg Melchior Kraus and his drawing school also made the engravings. But Georg Melchior Kraus was in general seen in Weimar circles. "Young and old, farm and citizenship, councils, poet and nobility, pages and their educators were sitting here next to each other, parents met at the same time with their children. " ( Felix Pischel ). In the winter season 1781/82 Goethe lectured on anatomy. Goethe said of Kraus: " He was the most enjoyable shareholder; stoic serenity accompanied him thoroughly; officiously without humility, held without pride, he found himself at home everywhere ... " Goethe took Kraus often on his trips to the Thuringian, in the resin and also to Mainz with, where he outlined the siege of the city; Image in the Landesmuseum Mainz.
1806 ran after Napoleon's victory at Jena and Auerstedt and French soldiers looted Weimar. They also raided the house Krausens. Although his friend Bertuch took up the wounded in body and soul painter with him and nursed, this survived his injuries by only a few weeks.
Kraus died on November 5, 1806 at the age of 69 years in Weimar, where he was buried at the Jacob Cemetery in Weimar.
Gallery
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1777
The Hubichenstein in resin 1784
The hermitage at Goslar ( Klusfelsen ) 1784
Rammelsberg 1784
Anna Amalia of Brunswick- Wolfenbüttel (Sachsen -Weimar -Eisenach )
Duchess Luise of Hesse- Darmstadt
Dear theatricals leadership of the "post- train " of Ayrenhoff
Dear theatricals leadership of the "post- train " of Ayrenhoff
Dear theatricals leadership of the "post- train " of Ayrenhoff
The Powder Tower and the Johannistor in Jena
The latest from junk parts
Siege of Mainz in 1792
Writings
- ABC of the subscriber, by G. M. Kraus, Herzogl. S. W. Rath and Director of the Ducal. Free Drawing School in Weimar. 5th edition Weimar 1810.
- Prospects and Parthia of the Ducal. Parks bey Weimar, ed. by Ernst- Gerhard Güse and Margaret Oppel, Weimar, 2006. ISBN 3-7443-0137-0