Louise Seidler
Caroline Louise Seidler ( born May 15, 1786 in Jena, † October 7, 1866 in Weimar) was a painter at the court of the Grand Duke of Weimar and confidant Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Life
Childhood and adolescence in Jena
Louise Seidler came on 15 May 1786 as subsidiary of the University equerry Seidel in Jena to the world. Your youth, she first spent with her grandmother, learned as a child drawing and making music and came after the death of her grandmother in the boarding Sophie Ludolfine Stielers to Gotha, which she attended from 1800 to 1803. In boarding school, she met her lifelong friends, Pauline Gotter and Franziska " Fanny " Caspers know. Her love of art developed only through drawing lessons of the sculptor Friedrich Wilhelm Eugen Doell, who had returned after eleven years' residence in Rome to Gotha.
Back in Jena, she lived in her father's house, which was located next to the official residence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Jena castle and she knew from childhood. In Jena, she was with Silvie von Ziegesar and Pauline Gotter, who later became the wife of the Jena professor Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, friends. Louise Seidler had full rights to receive spiritual upstanding circles Jenas, which at that time Friedrich Schiller, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt, the brothers Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel, Friedrich Tieck Clemens Brentano, Johann Heinrich Voss, Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob Paulus, Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer, Zacharias Werner and others housed. Goethe encountered mainly in the home of Jena publisher Carl Friedrich Ernst Frommann, which began to be interested in them.
Failed Wedding
On October 14, 1806, the French won the battle of Jena and occupied in 1806 and 1807 Jena, whose residents were exposed to violent attacks, billeting and looting. During this time, Seidler fell in love with the assistant medical director Geoffroy, who had come with the French corps of the French marshal Jean -Baptiste Bernadotte, and became his bride. Geoffroy but was reassigned before her wedding to Spain, where he soon died of a fever in the hospital.
Seidler wrote later: " The life of life was complete for me; my life at this time was only a dull brooding. " parents sent Seidler then to Dresden, to distract them from their grief and to disperse them in their gloomy thoughts.
Beginnings as a painter
During visits to the Dresden Art Gallery, the Goethe was impressed, she decided to become a painter. In this trade they made fast progress, especially since she became a student of the painter and professor Christian Leberecht Vogel, who gave her free lessons. Goethe, who stayed in 1810 on the return trip from Karlovy Vary for ten days in Dresden, liked their copy of Saint Cecilia by Carlo Dolci so well that he invited her to Weimar to paint a portrait of him. With the custom built in Weimar Portrait Goethe was satisfied.
Until the death of her mother, she spent the winter months in Weimar and Jena, in the summer months, however, it was formed in Dresden with the painter Gerhard von Kügelgen on. In winter 1811, she lived at the invitation of Duke Augustus of Saxe -Gotha -Altenburg in Gotha, to paint him and his wife, the Duchess Karoline Amalie, and the princess from the first marriage of the Duke. It was followed by further work with varying stays. Her mother's death on September 23, 1814 marked a turning point in Seidler's life since she moved to her father to Jena to him from now on to the budget. Nevertheless, she managed to make next artistic works.
Altarpiece for the chapel Rochus in Bingen
Beginning of 1816 was Goethe with Louise Seidler an altarpiece of Saint Roch in order that should be made to the design of Johann Heinrich Meyer after a sketch of Goethe, and he donated the Rochus chapel in Bingen, which he in on the Rhine, Main and Neckar 1814 had described alive. The inauguration ceremony of those rebuilt from ruins chapel Goethe had on 16 August 1814 - the Rochusfest - participated. In connection with this altarpiece a lively correspondence between Seidler and Goethe, in which he expressed satisfaction with their work was created.
"A picture of St. Roch, which is not bad, but possibly even of the type that it can work miracles, hopefully come to Bingen to build on the great day the believers. It was created whimsical. The sketch is of me that Carton of HOFR. Meyer and a tender love Künstlerinn has executed it. They are difficult to steal it the mountains Rochus in your collection. It sey but effective in its place and so it is right and good. "
Time in Munich (1817-1818)
At the instigation of Goethe received by Grand Duke Carl August a grant of 400 thalers in order to retrain for a year in Munich in painting. On July 4, 1817 Seidler traveled to Munich and was received with letters of recommendation from Goethe in the home of the philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. In Munich, she saw her friend Pauline Gotter again, who had married in 1812 the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, and learned in their home to the Swedish poet Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom know. In her painting Seidler was independent under the influence of the director of the Academy Langer, who took them from copying paintings away towards the study of nature, which she had neglected. Nevertheless, they copied on behalf of the Grand Duke Carl August in Munich issued Portrait of Raphael and for Goethe a drawing of the frieze of the Temple of Apollo. From Munich, it requested the Grand Duke Carl August for another scholarship for a stay in Italy, which he granted her with 400 thalers.
Time in Italy (1818-1823)
On September 20, 1818, Seidler went on the trip to Italy and arrived in Rome on 30 October 1818. She lived for art circles was customary at the Monte Pincio, where also lived Julius Schnorr von Carol Field and the brothers Johannes and Philipp Veit. In the German artist colony of painters and sculptors, they quickly found access and took the life of society and the artistic exercises an active part. You were also open to the homes of Barthold Georg Niebuhr, the Prussian envoy to the Papal States, and Caroline von Humboldt in Rome. In the spring of 1819 she spent several months in Naples and in autumn 1820 in Florence, to copy for the Duke Carl August, the so-called Madonna del Gran Duca and Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch, which was exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery in. The painter Friedrich Preller showed so impressed that he " best known for his Copie " told of their copy. Another work, the Madonna Tempi, bought King Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1826 for the Pinakothek at Munich.
In late autumn 1821 Seidler returned from Florence back to Rome. In April and May 1822 copied the painting of the violin player, which found a place later in the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam. At the same time they started their own painting entitled Saint Elizabeth to paint handing out alms. In their reports, they described the time in Italy as the happiest in her life. The time in Italy came to an abrupt end when she received the news in 1823 that her father was seriously ill.
Return to Weimar
Only after their return to Weimar, she found time her work Saint Elizabeth, handing out alms to complete. On the recommendation of Goethe and Johann Heinrich Meyer commissioned Duke Karl Friedrich them with the character. Instruction of his daughters Mary and Augusta After the death of her father, she thought back to Italy return, but could be deterred by the Grand Duke Carl August 1824 entrusted the Custody of persons accommodated in Weimar in the Great Hunter house United Ducal Art Collection. Except for a few trips Seidler remained in Weimar, and enjoyed the esteem in social circles. She led a lively correspondence with personalities of the time, among others, with Philipp Veit and his wife Caroline and Dorothea Schlegel. Your it was largely thanks to that Johann Gottlob von Quandt founded the Saxon Art Association and the Association that Goethe gave his keen interest. Seidler Goethe was until his death in 1832 warmly grateful for its promotion. The death of the poet put her into deep mourning.
With a woman v. Bardeleben they undertook in the fall of 1832 a second journey to Italy, which lasted a little over a year. Above all, she used the relations with the painter Friedrich Preller, who inspired her to saints and devotional images that continued after their trip to Italy and led to numerous works to the increasing blindness of her life made another artistic creation impossible. Before her death, she wrote her autobiography nor memories from the life of the painter Louise Seidler, the Hermann Uhde published in 1873 and is one of art history as one of the main sources of the time. Seidler died on 7 October 1866 in Weimar. In Dresden and Jena one - Louise Seidler Street remembers it.
Works (selection)
- Copy of Saint Cecilia by Carlo Dolce
- Portrait of Grand Duke Carl August and family 1811
- Portrait of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1811
- Altarpiece of Saint Roch 1816
- Pastel painting Sylvie von Ziegesar
- Oil Painting Wilhelmine Herzlieb
- Copy of Raphael's Portrait 1818
- Drawing of the frieze of the Appolotenmpels 1818
- Portrait of Fanny Caspers 1818-1819
- Copy of the Madonna del Gran Duca 1820
- Copy of the Madonna of the Goldfinch 1820
- Copy of the Madonna Tempi 1821
- Copy of Violin Player 1822
- Saint Elizabeth, handing out alms 1823
- The Virgin with the Sleeping Child, John the Baptist and Three Angels (Faith, Love, Hope ) 1823 ( Castle peace stone)
Gallery
Goethe's granddaughter Alma, pastel
Karl Alexander of Saxe- Weimar
Sylvie von Ziegesar, pastel
Wilhelmine Herzlieb, foster daughter of the From Mann, oil on canvas
Clara Richter, her niece, pastel