Johann Köler

Johann Köler ( born March 8, 1826 in Vastsemõisa, now the town Suure -Jaani, Governorate of Livonia, now Estonia, † April 22, 1899 in Saint Petersburg ) was an Estonian painter. He is considered the first professional Estonian painter.

Life and work

Johann Köler was born the seventh child in a peasant family. Despite the poverty of the parents they let the boy get the best education possible. He attended primary school, then the school district in Viljandi. Then he went into the workshop of the master painter Faber in Cesis (Livonia) in teaching.

1846 moved Köler as a shield painter to Saint Petersburg, where his talent was soon discovered. From 1848 to 1855 Johan Köler studied at the St. Petersburg Academy initially drawing, painting later. For his graduation project, a mythological oil paintings by Herakles and Kerberos him the little gold medal was awarded.

From 1857 FULL Köler his skills abroad. He first went to Berlin and Paris, later to Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. In 1858, he traveled over the Alps to Milan, Geneva, Florence and Rome. There he worked in a private academy and devoted himself to watercolor technique. In 1859 he presented in Rome before his composition Christ on the Cross and was a member of the " Colonna ", the German association of artists in Rome, from which he received numerous impulses.

1861 reached Köler a reputation of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. The following year he returned to St. Petersburg. From 1862 to 1874 he was a teacher of the Grand Duchess Maria Aleksandrovna, daughter of Tsar Alexander II 1869/70 he worked as a lecturer at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. In 1867 the title of a professor of history and portrait painting, he was awarded for a portrait of Chancellor Gorchakov.

From 1886 to 1889 worked Johan Köler in Vienna, Nice and Paris. He distinguished himself especially by his masterful portraits, but also impressed by his landscape paintings. Some of his best pictures depict the Estonian rural life in the second half of the 19th century.

National awakening of Estonians

Johann Köler understood aware as a painter of Estonian origin. From 1863 he took part in Saint Petersburg in intellectual discussions and in Estonian -minded circles in the national awakening of Estonians. There he also friendship with the journalist Carl Robert Jakobson, one of the masterminds of the Estonian sovereignty idea.

From 1891 to 1893 was president of the Estonian literary Köler Association ( Eesti Kirjameeste Selts ). Then he pulled back more and more from public life. Johann Köler today lies in the cemetery of Suure -Jaani buried.

Aftermath

1976 was inaugurated in the town square of Viljandi, a monument to Johann Köler.