Botho Graef

Botho Graef Franz ( born October 12, 1857 in Berlin, . † 9 April 1917 in Königstein im Taunus ) was a German archaeologist and art historian Classic.

Life and work

Botho Graef was born into a family of artists in Berlin. His father Gustav Graef was a well known portrait painter. His mother Franziska Graef (1824-1893), who came from the major Jewish family Liebreich, was also a painter and lithographer. Graef studied at the Friedrich -Wilhelms -Universität zu Berlin and the Ernst- Moritz- Arndt- University Greifswald Classical Philology and Classical Archaeology. During his studies he participated in archaeological excavation and research trips to Italy, Greece and Asia Minor. Through his sister, the painter Sabine Lepsius, he had in Berlin Contact the George circle. He also maintained a correspondence with Stefan George. In 1886 he received his doctorate with a thesis De Bacchi expeditione indica Monumentis expressa. From 1890 to 1904 he was a lecturer at the Friedrich- Wilhelms-Universität.

From 1904 to 1917 Graef taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Jena Classical Archaeology and Art History. He served on the building of the university. His intercession owe the university and city of Jena artworks by Ferdinand Hodler, Henry van de Velde and Auguste Rodin. He was a mentor of the company founded in 1903 in Jena Kunstverein. As a friend and supporter he paved artists such as Emil Nolde and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner way. For Nolde, he taught at the Jena Kunstverein Exhibitions one, for Kirchner Graef was fatherly friend, whom he portrayed several times. Graef died in 1917 of a heart attack in Königstein, a spa town, which even his brother Reinhold Lepsius and Kirchner frequent visits and created in the latter murals in Brunnenturm the sanatorium of Dr. Oskar Kohnstamm. 1917 donated Kirchner the Jena Kunstverein in memory of Botho Graef 260 woodcuts, lithographs and etchings. The Botho Graef - Foundation was the most valuable component of the Jena art collection. Among the well-known students were Graefe Karl Gustav Vollmoeller and Walter Dexel.

In appreciation of Botho Graef and his commitment to modern art, the city of Jena has awarded since 1992 Botho Graef - Prize to contemporary artists.

Writings

  • Hodler's and Hofmann's murals in the University of Jena. Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Jena, 1910.
  • Henry van de Velde In: The Bookworm. Monthly for book lovers. Publisher of Bookworm, Dachau, 1913.
  • Together with Ernst Langlotz: The antique vases from the Acropolis at Athens, Vol I-II, de Gruyter, Berlin, 1925-1933 (posthumous ).
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