Franz Joachim Beich
Franz Joachim Beich (* October 15, 1665 in Ravensburg ( baptism date ); † October 16, 1748 in Munich) was a German painter.
Life and work
Beich comes from a family of craftsmen Munich. His father was Daniel Beich 1662 citizens of the Free City of Ravensburg, where he worked as a painter and cartographer. 1665 his son Franz Joachim was born. Increasingly active in 1670 as a cartographer for the Bavarian court, pulled Daniel Beich 1674 the family moved to Munich. Franz Joachim received in Munich probably from the father or from a relative named William Beich training as a landscape painter.
The very first paintings Beichs ( the only known image is a Evening mountain landscape from 1694 ) have an international style similar to Dutch and Italian models style, the taste of the Bavarian Elector Maximilian II Emanuel apparently met exactly. When Max Emanuel had built his brilliant baroque palace, the New Castle in Schleißheim, Beich was awarded the main contract for the equipment with paintings: the conqueror became known as Turks Elector had him paint paintings representative of his battles in Hungary. 1703-1704 so produced two monumental paintings that were permanently installed in the Great Hall of the castle. With a size of 5.10 x 9.69 m in size and a weight of about 1.5 t are the relief of Vienna in 1683 and the Battle of Mohács in 1687, the largest canvas painting in Bavarian state-owned (and probably still the largest in Germany, which were not designed as a circular painting ). In 1704 he was awarded the prestigious title of elector electoral valet and court painter.
In the turmoil of the Spanish Succession War of the court, however, was dissolved, and Beich hoping for new customers in Italy, where he stayed from 1704 to 1714. In Rome and Naples, he met many famous artists know and could also collect a lot of picturesque motifs. In Naples, he seems to have been no competition among Dutch and German landscape painters of his time, suggest as narrated from Bernardo de Dominici enthusiastic comments of Francesco Solimena and others. On the way back to Germany, he took even longer stop in Livorno.
To In 1714 he returned to Germany, where he could hope for new jobs after the return of Max Emanuel. On January 26, 1715 in Munich Beich married Anna Elisabeth Schmidtin from Bruck (Upper Bavaria). The Elector reached back to his court painter Beich when he needed represäntative painting for its castles. As a result Beich painted by the 1718-1722/23 Nymphenburg views of the electoral desire Schösser for Nymphenburg Palace, and from 1720 to 1725 ten more battle scenes for Schleissheim Palace, which can be seen in the local Victory Hall. The detail of the paintings and the conscientiousness Beichs, who even visited the scenes of battles, make the painting for valuable source for Military History. After Beich had been paid by the chronically cash-strapped court only irregularly, ended the death of Max Emanuel in 1726 his career as a court painter, since the subsequent Elector ordered rigorous austerity measures.
The following Beich mainly painted landscapes, some with biblical figures, for noble or middle-class clients, and for some of the Bavarian monasteries. Until about 1730, a cycle of thirteen views Bavarian Marian pilgrimage sites for the 1710 -built community hall of the Marian Congregation in Munich, was established.
Students in Munich seems to have had Beich. However, his local landscapes exerted influence on the Munich landscape painting around 1800. Among the friends Beichs included the painter Cosmas Damian Asam and Georges Desmarées. Towards the end of his life was Beichs ability to hear and vision for ever more. 1748 he died after a contemplative life evening in Munich.