Eduard Gaertner
Johann Philipp Eduard Gaertner ( born June 2, 1801 in Berlin, † February 22, 1877 in patches Zechlin ) was a Berlin painter of the 19th century, which was particularly appreciated for its accurate and still vivid reproduction of urban architecture.
- 2.1 aids
- 2.2 Highlights
- 2.3 change of style
Life
Training
Born in Berlin in 1801 Eduard Gaertner moved in 1806 with his mother, a Goldstickerin, to Kassel, where he received his first drawing lessons as a ten year old. 1813 the two came back to Berlin, and the following year began Gaertner there a six -year apprenticeship at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory ( KPM ). This training is considered essential for Gaertner career, not least because of the accuracy of the work that was required of him. Other Berlin architectural painters began their careers in the KPM. He himself had a different view: the learned was there " except a superficial teaching of perspective for my career more of a hindrance conducive ( or were) than, as I had to make only rings, edges and Käntchens ". During the apprenticeship Gaertner attended the drawing class of the Academy of Arts.
After another year in the KPM, now as a fully-trained porcelain painter, he joined in 1821 as a decorative painter in the studio of the Royal Court Theatre painter Carl Wilhelm Gropius and remained there until 1825. Through the work of stage decorations, some from designs by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, he acquired more fundamental knowledge of the architecture of painting, he now turned to more and more. During these years, he participated already in the exhibitions of the Academy of the Arts ( where he then until 1872 was a regular participant ), received first orders from the Prussian court and was a painting of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. . sale This success brought him a three-year study trip to Paris - not the first of his many trips, but an artistic extremely significant for its development. He probably learned a lot of English watercolor painters such as John Constable, who had discovered at the time, in parts even medieval Paris as a subject for her paintings. Gaertner photos soon betrayed a more scenic view than before, he learned to use light and atmospheric perspective impressive and decided finally for his future main theme, the veduta.
Achievements
After his return from Paris, Gaertner was in 1828 as a freelance painter settled in Berlin. He married in 1829. Together with his wife Henriette he had twelve children, one of seven sons died shortly after birth. In the next ten years, a large number of those works in which he described the Biedermeier residence city of Berlin, which had just been enriched by the buildings of Schinkel in all its diversity arose. He also painted, with views of the customers at the royal court, the castle landscapes around Bellevue, Charlottenburg, Glienicke and Potsdam. The pictures could be selling well ( only the king acquired multiple views of the castle ) and found general recognition. Gaertner 1833, applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts and was called " perspective painter" Ordinary member.
The following year he began his most famous work, the six-part panorama of Berlin. Schinkel had just completed the Friedrichswerder Church, whose flat roof to the popular destination of Berlin was - all distinctive buildings in the city were in sight. From here, Gaertner painted his all-round image, and this work was purchased by the King. A second version brought the Russian Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna Gaertner, a daughter of Frederick William III, on one of his long trips to Saint Petersburg and Moscow in the years 1837 and 1838 -. Journeys, during which he drew and painted extensively.
Problems
Died in 1840, Frederick William III. , Who sponsored the Berlin architectural painter and a total of 21 paintings Gaertner had bought. After the accession of his son changed the political and cultural climate. Friedrich Wilhelm IV preferred, along with Italian and Greek art, a German national, based on medieval art exercise. Although he also bought a few more images Gaertner, but which had now lost its main client and soon fell into a financially difficult situation.
In the search for new fields of work apparently he got in touch with advocates of just starting monuments. As a preliminary step for the protection and restoration of endangered Prussian monuments a drawn inventory of such buildings was planned. On extended trips through villages and towns of the province Prussia (now part of Poland) Gaertner made a series of watercolors that could serve this purpose. Move emerged more pictures, although they also contain architectural motifs, but the Scenic more stressed and intended for subsequent sale in Berlin were - in the small towns of the province, there was hardly affluent residents. Unlike in Torun on the Vistula: here he acquired on several trips a solid middle-class clientele. Taken together, all these activities were not always successful, some of the resulting works remained unsold.
Generally found his art in the second half of the century less and less applause, photography was increasingly competing. 1870 he and his wife left the hectic metropolis Berlin and become settled in the Brandenburg spots Zechlin. There Gaertner died on 22 February 1877. His widow asked the Artist Support Fund of the Academy of Arts is an annual allowance of 150 marks, but her application was rejected.
Eduard Gaertner seemed to have disappeared from art history. Only on the "German century - exhibition" of 1906 his works were shown again, they are now compared with the art of the great Italian Vedutenmalers Bernardo Bellotto ( Canaletto called ). Fragmentary solo exhibitions there in 1968 and then again in 1977, a major exhibition in 2001 at the Berlin Ephraim -Palais.
The images
Aid
Eduard Gaertner worked with the precision of an architect. As a technical drawing aid for the preparation of his paintings he used very probably the camera obscura, though he does not expressly mentioned in his work diaries. There, however, dive expressions such as " drafting machine " and " machine ", which indicate to the device, as well as various architectural drawings on tracing paper. In Gaertner possession were also a collection of early photographs with views of Berlin. Surely he observed the development of new imaging technology with interest, but the photos did not use directly as models for his paintings.
Highlights
The Berlin-Panorama are considered highlights in Gaertner life's work. He makes reference to a popular in the 19th century and widely used medium of entertainment and instruction. Around pictures of mostly 14 m high and 120 m circumference moved to the big cities of Europe since 1790 numerous spectators, were shown landscapes, history paintings and cityscapes. In addition, Klein created panoramas in which images could be viewed through magnifying lenses. Gaertner chose an unconventional special form. He probably hoped from the beginning that the king would buy his panorama and therefore decided to use picture boards in the room format. The 360 ° view he distributed on two triptychs, two broader side wings were arranged at an angle of 45 ° to the central part, in order to achieve a convincing perspective.
Gaertner delivered in this way a precise description of the cityscape of Berlin, at the same time but a series alive crafted genre pictures. Summery afternoon light determines the warm tone of the paintings and emphasized by the oblique light incidence, the plasticity of the structures. Men, women and children in a variety of everyday situations, to all sorts of creatures animate the scenes. The location of the painter is included in the composition and forms the foreground - a principle that has been applied frequently in the large panoramas, to emphasize spatial depth. Here Gaertner also itself represents, his wife and two of his children as well as some prominent contemporaries: Schinkel, Beuth, Alexander von Humboldt. Friedrich Wilhelm III. " Evinced very gracious to his good pleasure " on the first three image panels, and the finished panoramic found in 1836 in Schloss Charlottenburg his place. It was extremely appreciative judged and brought the painter a different follow-up orders.
Change of style
Soon after 1840 - the year of death of Frederick William III. - Can be a progressive change in style at work watching Gaertner, according to the spirit and the personal taste of the new king. The general trend was of classical clarity to the more romantic view of nature and history, to the idealized overshoot. In Gaertner now find landscape images with dramatic clouds designed games where the architecture plays only a subordinate, decorative role. He mastered quite the romantic repertoire: steep cliffs, overhanging trees ( oaks by preference ), ruins of all kinds, Gypsy. This work also had a painterly quality, but were far less admired than the cityscapes of previous years. So Eduard Gaertner remains primarily as a painter of architecture in mind, who has carefully observed the city of Berlin in an important phase of its history and presented.