Ludwig Knaus

Ludwig Knaus ( born October 5, 1829 in Wiesbaden, † December 7, 1910 in Berlin) was the most successful Wiesbaden painter in the 19th century. He gained as a genre painter, as well as a portraitist Early fame. In addition, his skills were in demand in the advertising industry. By 1900 he had achieved as a painter such a high value that the Great Conversation Lexicon Meyers him devoted and summed up one and a half columns: " The real German direction of his view of art culminates in the description of the children's life [ ... ] His images have by random and photograph achieved a great popularity. He is a professor, member of the Academy, Knight of the Order pour le Mérite and since 1861 owned by the large medal of the Berlin Art Exhibition. " To its 100th anniversary in 2010, thought it his in his hometown: " The most significant Wiesbaden artist has the art history not mastered. He, too, is among the great dead. "

  • 3.1 Illustrations (selection)

Life and work

The artistic beginnings

Knaus was the son of an optician who had had moved from the Swabian Waiblingen to Wiesbaden. Soon it became evident to him the " urge to copying of. " In school, his artistic talent of the stemming from Weilburg drawing teacher Philipp Jakob Albrecht (1779-1860) was encouraged. He also brought him to the ducal court painter Otto Reinhold Jacobi in teaching.

Studies in Dusseldorf

1845 Knaus came with 16 years at the Dusseldorf Art Academy and was there together with Anselm Feuerbach student of Karl Ferdinand Sohn and the Nazarene Wilhelm von Schadow. Until 1852 Knaus learned at the academy and found very early style of his own. Unlike his teachers, cultivated the historical religious and mythological themes, Knaus took his subjects more in the genre, such as " Players " ( 1851) or show " The Peasant Dance " ( 1850) " The bees Father" ( 1851).

Freelance in Dusseldorf

Because of disputes with Schadow he left the Academy in 1848. Together with the brothers Andreas and Oswald Achenbach, Joseph Fay, Benjamin Vautier, including he founded the paintbox and earned his living as a portrait painter in Dusseldorf.

Studies in Willinghausen and Hotzenwald

In the summer of 1849 Knaus was the first time to ethnographic studies with his friend Adolf Schreyer in Willinghausen in the Schwalm. In those years he created his actual main works; " The funeral in a Hessian village" (1871 ), "The Siblings " (1872 ) or " The advice to the farmers Haunsteiner " (1873 ). In the southern Black Forest, in Hotzenwald he ran figure studies in 1850 and was particularly interested in their rural garb (clothing).

17 years in Paris and traveling

1852 visited the Knaus art collector Barthold Suermondt in Aachen. In November, he traveled to Paris, in the former European Capital of Culture. There he associated, inter alia, Franz Xaver Winterhalter and Anselm Feuerbach. In the salon of the big spring exhibition in 1853 he received a gold medal. From Paris Knaus visited in April and May Barbizon and Fontainebleau to paint landscape studies. In June, he traveled via Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Ostend to Dusseldorf and Wiesbaden. In January 1854 Knaus returned to Paris. In November 1855 his local world exhibition was a highlight of his career, which he charged with various paintings. For his image of "Gypsies in the wood" him a medal was awarded first class. In December, he was back in Wiesbaden. In May 1856 Knaus traveled to England, where he visited the Crystal Palace, museums and exhibitions in London. In June Knaus was back in Germany, traveled on Dusseldorf to Dresden, Bohemia and Stuttgart. In October he went from Wiesbaden to Paris again. In 1857 he lived in Fontainebleau, to then travel with Suermondt to England. In October 1857 Knaus traveled to Italy. The stations were, inter alia, Venice, Padua, Turin, Genoa and Rome. In December, he made ​​a trip to the Sabine Mountains. In Italy, far away from his home Knaus discovered that it " far better suits the interesting cozy German Genre ", as the Italian " national life ". In April 1858 Knaus about Terracina, Capua traveled to Naples to arrive in June in Wiesbaden. In July, he held back on in Willinghausen. The end of September, he returned to Paris, where he took over the studio of Winterhalter. As one of the most important works which he had begun in September in Willinghausen to paint, is to be considered " The Golden Wedding". 1859 Knaus from January to October in Germany, England and Belgium while traveling. In October he married Henriette Hoffmann, the daughter of the owner of the "European Court " in Wiesbaden. He then went to Paris again.

Back in Germany

In June 1860 Knaus finally returned to Germany where he was to build on the Geisberg a studio in his home town of Wiesbaden. In the fall of 1861 he moved to Berlin. In the following years, he held several occasions back in Wiesbaden, Willinghausen and the Black Forest. In June 1867 he traveled to the World Exhibition in Paris, where his painting " sovereignty traveling "; " Invalid in the white beer " and " Card playing orphans " in the presence of the court of Napoleon III. have been awarded the Medal of Honor of the Great Gold Medal and the Officer's Cross of the Legion of Honour.

Stopover in Dusseldorf

In late autumn 1867 Knaus moved to Dusseldorf - PEMPELFORT, where he was building a house in Duisburg road 140. There he stood in a lively exchange with his colleagues from the Art Academy.

Final to stay in Berlin

And was appointed as Knaus 1874 to Royal Prussian Professor appointed to the Academy of Fine Arts, he participated in the capital his permanent residence. In Berlin, he was entrusted with the guidance of a master class. There was, inter alia, Knut Ekvall his student.

In 1879 he moved with his family in the newly built house in the Hildebrandstraße 17 Knaus was as portraitist become so popular that the National Gallery in Berlin commissioned him to paint portraits of the historian Theodor Mommsen and the physicist Hermann von Helmholtz. He himself paid tribute to the National Gallery by ankaufte one created by the sculptor Otto Lessing marble portrait half-length, but this was destroyed in the Second World War. From Berlin Knaus visited three more times Willinghausen in the coming years. In addition, he travels took abroad, 1884 to London in 1885 to Vienna and Budapest, 1889 to Paris, to Rome in 1898 and 1909 for the last time in Paris. As Knaus died in Berlin on December 7th, he was buried in the cemetery Dahlem.

Honors

Works

  • Harlequin (1847 )
  • The Peasant Dance ( 1850)
  • Barthold Suermondt, ( 1850 ), Suermondt -Ludwig- Museum in Aachen
  • The Player ( 1851)
  • The bees Father ( 1851)
  • Age protects against folly not ( 1851)
  • The funeral in the forest, encountered a Thug ( 1852)
  • The Countess Helfenstein begs for mercy of her husband (1852 )
  • The pickpocket at the Fair (1852 )
  • The Promenade ( 1855)
  • The Golden Wedding ( 1858)
  • The Baptism (1859 )
  • David Hanse man, portrait
  • The extract for the dance
  • The nursery
  • The Conjurer
  • Highness on Travel
  • The shoemaker's boy
  • The Organ Grinder
  • The Children's Festival (1869 )
  • The funeral in a Hessian village (1871 )
  • The Goose Girl (1872 )
  • In a thousand fears (1872 )
  • The Siblings (1872 )
  • The advice of the Hauenstein peasants (1873 )
  • The Holy Family (1876 )
  • On bad roads (1876 )
  • The refractory model (1877 )
  • Solomon's Wisdom ( 1878)
  • Behind The Scenes ( 1880)
  • The Bacchae (1886 )
  • The harried Wild ( 1886)
  • A Försterheim (1886 )
  • The Sweet Tooth (1897 )

Illustrations (selection)

Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf:

  • In: Watercolors Düsseldorf artists: the art-loving ladies dedicated. - Dusseldorf: Arnz, 1861 English edition: Aquarels of Dusseldorf artists.. - Dusseldorf: . Arnz, 1852 ( Digitised German edition, Digitized English Edition )
  • In: Stieler, K / Wachenhusen, H. / Hackländer, FW: . Rhine Journey: From the sources of the Rhine to the sea. - Stuttgart: Kröner, 1875 Digitized edition.
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