Henry Vianden

Heinrich Vianden, Vianden known as Henry, ( born July 9, 1814 Poppelsdorf; † February 5, 1899 in Milwaukee ) was an American- German painter, lithographer and engraver. Among friends, he was nicknamed " The Bear " (English: " The Bear " ) and is often referred to as the "Father of Wisconsin art."

Life

Vianden, the only child of ceramic painter Wilhelm Joseph Vianden (1788-1818) and his wife Anna Maria, née Weyh (1788-1866), was five years old when his father died. At age 14, he trained as a goldsmith and studied from 1838 to 1841 at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. From 1844, he exhibited his paintings for the first time in Cologne and continued his artistic education for one and a half years in Antwerp in the same year continues. In Belgium, he also worked with Frans -Andries Durlet. In 1845 he returned to Germany, where he lived in Cologne (Grand Brinkgasse 11). In November 1848 he married his first wife Magdalena cripple (* 1811), the daughter of a Zuelpicher village doctor. She gave birth in the later four children, who all died in their childhood.

Together with her, he left Germany in May 1849 and reached the United States on July 4 in New York City, where the two remained for a few weeks before they moved to Wisconsin, first staying there in the area of Burlington, and in October 1849 then in Milwaukee, the U.S. citizen applied for. In December he set out for the first time in Milwaukee and in May 1850 he and his wife moved to a suburb now turned my finished. Near his house, he taught outdoor painting. In the city itself, he had a studio in a small shop building in the 111 Mason Street, where he also taught. In addition, he taught at the two non-denominational private academies German - English Academy by Peter Engelmann (now University School of Milwaukee), and German, French, and English Academy of Mathilde Franziska Anneke. Some of his students were well-known artists, including, for example, Carl von Marr, Robert Koehler, Frank Enders, Robert Schade and Susan Stuart Frackleton.

On June 5, 1860 he left his first wife and went back to Germany. On November 1, 1861, he requested the Milwaukeer district court for divorce, which was granted on 15 February 1862. In 1867 he married his second wife, the German Wollenzien Fredericka ( 1837-1897 ). The marriage remained childless.

Vianden died at the age of 85 years at a pleurisy disease. A part of his land he sold in his lifetime at the Forest Home Cemetery Milwaukee, on which his body was buried. His house, which was located in the southwest corner of the cemetery, was demolished in 1922.