Karl Wilhelm Wach
Karl Wilhelm Wach (* September 11, 1787 in Berlin, † November 24, 1845 ) was a German painter.
Life
Wax studied art at the Academy of his native town, where he was a pupil of the painter Karl Kretschmar. Through the intercession of wax was already twenty years the contract to create an altarpiece for the village church Paretz'and; it was 1807 "Christ with four apostles ".
Four years later managed to watch with his portrait of Queen Louise his artistic breakthrough. After the campaigns of 1813-1815 wax retired with the rank of militia officers from the army and settled in Paris.
He made friends with Wilhelm Hensel, and the two were students of the painter Antoine -Jean Gros and Jacques Louis David. 1817 undertook wax a longer study trip to Italy to study especially the artists of the Quattrocento there. The strongest influence - in their own words - but resulted in Raphael.
After two years of wax in 1819 returned to Berlin and settled there as a freelance artist. The first major task was the design of the royal theater. Wax created for a ceiling painting with the nine Muses; ( the engraver Joseph Caspar created in 1877 of which a well-known engraving).
By order of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. was placed a large hall with apartment available, in this then set up his studio wax. Due to his influence and his many students, this studio was soon to a school. Until 1837 he had nearly seventy students, almost all of which as an artist made careers later.
His work as a teacher did not affect his art in the least. Wax was soon honored with the title Professor and in 1820 appointed by the Academy as a member. On the occasion of his fortieth birthday became court painter to the royal guard official. The Academy convened in 1845 to guard its Deputy Director; this office he held until his death.
The official art criticism, but also the audience appreciated wax mainly as a portraitist. It would be an exaggeration to see him as the successor to Raphael, though he tried to imitate his works quite well. Wax can not be seen as a brilliant creator of new ideas, but rather as an eclectic.
Wilhelm Wach was, like his sister Henriette Paalzow, buried in the Friedrichswerder Cemetery in Berlin -Kreuzberg. The family grave is, however, no longer obtain.
Works (selection)
- The Last Supper and the Resurrection of Christ ( in the Protestant St. Peter and Paul church in Moscow )
- Madonna with child " ( begun in 1825 as a wedding gift the city of Berlin for the Princess Louise of Prussia, completed in 1827 as " allegory. Stiftung of the Christian Church " )
- The three heavenly virtues ( 1830 Friedrichswerder Church in Berlin)
- Christ with his disciples
- Surprised psyche of Cupid
- A life-size nymph
- John in the Desert ( 1838)
- Judith with the Head of Holofernes (1838 )