Christian Ernst Bernhard Morgenstern

Christian Ernst Bernhard Morgenstern ( born September 29, 1805 in Hamburg, † February 26, 1867 in Munich) was a German landscape painter. Morgenstern is regarded as one of the most important representatives of early painterly realism in Germany. He earned this reputation, along with the one years younger Adolph Friedrich Vollmer, already in Hamburg 1826-1829 during both study time and then, from 1830, along with Wasmann, Dahl and Menzel in Munich after his relocation there.

Family

Morgenstern was born the third of six children of the Hamburg miniature painter Johann Heinrich Morgenstern ( 1769-1813 ). He married 1844 Louise of Lüneschloß ( 1804-1874 ), foster daughter of the miniaturist Carlo Restallino. The only child of this marriage was the later landscape painter Carl Ernst Morgenstern (1847-1928), father of the famous poet and writer Christian Morgenstern ( 1871-1914 ). This family Morgenstern, is not related to the Frankfurt family of painters Morgenstern, who comes from Rudolstadt / Thuringia.

Life

After the early death of his father the young Morgenstern came to teaching in the graphic workshop of the brothers Suhr. Cornelius Suhr took him in 1818 as his assistant and servant with a two -year journey through the whole of Germany, on the Suhr demonstrated the panoramas of the workshop and were sketched on the views for more panoramas. 1822 was followed by a trip to Russia. They stayed for a year in St. Petersburg, then drive to Moscow and return via Tallinn and Riga. After returning Morgenstern forced the separation of Suhr and in 1824, on the advice of friends young painter, pupil of Siegfried Bendixen ( 1824-1827 ) in Hamburg. Morgenstern completed his training at the Academy in Copenhagen (1827 /28) and went on study trips through Sweden and Norway.

By Bendixen, he met the Baron von Rumohr know, promoter of young Hamburg artists, on whose estate in Holstein he spent several summers. On the advice Rumohr he went to Munich in 1830 and won wide acclaim there. Morgenstern regularly undertook study tours to the surrounding area; the summer of 1836 and the following summer he spent in Alsace as a guest art-loving patron.

In the fall of 1839 he returned to Hamburg and remained there until the following spring. 1841 was followed by a tour with the landscape painter Eduard Schleich over Innsbruck and Bolzano to Venice and Trieste; 1843 and 1849 trips to the Zillertal valley. It was followed in the summer of 1850 a stay on Helgoland. Since 1853 Morgenstern spent the summer mostly in Dachau, later, from 1860, often with family and friends at the Chiemsee and Starnberger See. 1860 Morning Star was appointed Knight of the Order of Merit of St. Michael.

Importance

As 1835 Carl Rottmann returned from Greece, a close, lifelong friendship developed. Both artists influenced each other. Anton Teichlein expressed this in his grave speech in 1867:

" Christian Morgenstern was one of the few artists in his field, which - strong enough to self, strange talent -. Did not have to shy away from the most intimate intercourse with the Rottmann 's genius, one of the few who knew how to learn from him, without lapsing into imitation"

Sixty years later judged Paul F. Schmidt Rottmann's influence completely different:

"But as important Morgenstern in 1830 " had been for the German development for independent Vorimpressionismus [ with ] very picturesque perceived sketches in which the observation of the air effect already plays an almost equally important role as 30 years later, with the French Impressionists, [ so ] stepped through the influence of the late Romantic style K. Rottmann and Düsseldorf (1835 was A. Aschenbach in Munich) is an artistic decline a. [ ... ] The slope of the time to theatricality and exaggeration gave his art a fatal stab into the pathetic, [ typical of ] Representatives of the false late Romanticism. "

Works (selection)

• Book - Frederiksdal near Copenhagen, 1828, Hamburger Kunsthalle
• Waterfall in Upper Bavaria, in 1830, Hamburger Kunsthalle
• Trees on the water ( Bavarian landscape? ), 1832, Museo Thyssen- Bornemisza
• Landscape in the evening, 1848, private collection
• Homestead under trees ( Dachau Etzenhausen ), 1855, Bavarian State Painting Collections
• Village at Dachau, 1859, Hamburger Kunsthalle
• East coast of Helgoland, 1863, Munich: Schack-Galerie
• Moon Sunrise on the River Elbe, 1864? , Whereabouts unknown

Selection of works, arranged chronologically

1848: Landscape at Dusk

1855: Homestead in Etzenhausen at Dachau

1863: East coast of Helgoland