Anton Josef Dräger

Anton Josef Dräger ( born September 9, 1794 in Munstermaifeld; † July 26, 1833 in Rome ) was a German painter.

Life

He was the son of Martin Draeger, Alderman in Munstermaifeld and administrator of the former Heilig-Geist- Hospital, and Anna Katharina Vacano. His grandfather was the university professor to Trier and Alderman Nicholas Josef Dräger.

Dräger studied in 1817 at the Art Academy in Dresden Gerhard von Kügelgen. Four years later (1821 ) he went with other German painters (including Carl Götzloff, Karl Georg Schumacher and Dietrich Wilhelm Lindau ) to Rome, which he reached on 25 October. He lived and worked there until his early death at not even 39 years. In Rome he was known as the co-founder of the Ponte Molle Society, the forerunner of the German association of artists in 1845.

Dräger was with the painter Erwin Speckter (1806-1835) friends, he was known in Rome with Carl Gottlieb Peschel. Also, the Prussian envoy Christian Karl Josias, Baron von Bunsen belonged to his circle of friends as well as the head of the royal Hanoverian legation and art collector August Kestner.

Works

Dräger was based on Goethe's color theory and began his experiments with gray underpainting. In his works, he took the Dutch and Venetians as an artistic role model and was praised by his colleagues for his " coloristic talent ". Among the Germans in Rome Dräger was the first artist of the beginning at this time of change for the " Picturesque " took place with a stressed coloration. Dräger has sacrificed everything more or less the color, it means therefore.

The paintings Dräger are now in major museums, such as in Copenhagen, Rome, Berlin, Dresden, Hanover and Trier. These include, inter alia,