Louis Gurlitt
Heinrich Theodor Gurlitt Louis (also Ludwig Gurlitt; born March 8, 1812 in Altona, † September 19, 1897 in Obernaundorf ) was a German - Danish painter.
Life
Louis Gurlitt was the son of the gold master manipulators and later manufacturer Johann August Wilhelm Gurlitt (1774-1855) and Helene Eberstein (1784-1855) in Altona, which was at the time under Danish administration, was born. Together with 17 siblings, he grew up in poverty. Known in his school days as a model student, his talent for drawing was discovered and nurtured early. He received his first education at about 1826 Gunther Gensler ( 1803-1884 ), a friend of the family, who portrayed his parents in Hamburg. In the years 1828-1832 he was a student and assistant of Siegfried Detlev Bendixen, in the period after ( 1832-1834 ) pupil of Copenhagen Academy of Art, where he developed his passion for landscape painting under Christoffer Wilhelm Johan Ludwig Gebhard Eckerberg and Lund. He later undertook numerous study trips in almost all European countries.
On the advice of friends and artists at the invitation of the Gotha Duke Ernst II Gurlitt moved in March 1860 in the Thuringian town of Gotha residence, where he got set up a studio in Mönchshof castle. Here also lived the writer Gustav Freytag, was friends with the Gurlitt. Gurlitt spent fourteen creative years in Gotha, was highly valued and revered. After another intermediate stations in Dresden and Plauen, the artist moved his primary residence to Steglitz, near Berlin.
His family happiness was overshadowed first by the early death of his first two wives. In his third marriage, he was with Elizabeth Lewald (1823-1909) married the sister of Fanny Lewald, one of the most important German writers of the pre-March period. From 1847 closed marriage seven children were born. A few days after his golden wedding Gurlitt died at his summer residence in Obernaundorf. His sons were, inter alia, the architectural historian Cornelius Gurlitt, the art dealer Fritz Gurlitt, the pedagogue Louis Gurlitt and the Classical archaeologist Wilhelm Gurlitt, his grandson, the art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, the musicologist Willibald Gurlitt and the painter Cornelia Gurlitt were (1890-1919). A nephew and pupil was the Hamburg painter and lithographer Eugene Kruger.