Anselm Feuerbach(12 September 1829 – 4 January 1880) was a Germanpainter.He was the leadingneoclassicalpainter of the German 19th-century school.
Anselm Feuerbach | |
|---|---|
 Self-portrait(1873) | |
| Born | Anselm Feuerbach 12 September 1829 |
| Died | 4 January 1880(aged 50) |
| Nationality | German |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Neoclassicism |
| Signature | |
 | |
Biography
editEarly life
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Feuerbach was born atSpeyer,the son of the archaeologistJoseph Anselm Feuerbachand the grandson of the legal scholarPaul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach.The house of his birth is now a small museum.[1]
Between 1845 and 1848 he attended theDüsseldorf Academy,where he was taught byJohann Wilhelm Schirmer,Wilhelm von Schadow,andCarl Sohn.He went on to the Munich Academy, but in 1850, along with a number of other dissatisfied students, he moved to the academy atAntwerp,where he studied underGustav Wappers.Feuerbach moved to Paris in 1851, where he was a pupil ofThomas Coutureuntil 1854.[2]It was in Paris that he produced his first masterpiece,Hafiz at the Fountain(1852).[3]
In 1854, funded byGrand Duke Friedrich of Badenhe visitedVenice,[2]where he fell under the spell of the greatest school of colourists, several of his works demonstrating a close study of the Italian masters.[3]From there he continued toFlorenceand then to Rome. He remained in Rome until 1873, making brief visits back to Germany.[2]In 1861 he metAnna Risi(known as "Nanna" ), who sat as his model for the next four years.[2]: 270 In 1866 she was succeeded as his principal model by Lucia Brunacci, an innkeeper's wife who posed for his pictures ofMedea.[2]In 1862 Feuerbach met CountAdolf Friedrich von Schack,who commissioned copies of Italian old masters from him. The count introduced him toArnold BöcklinandHans von Marées.The three artists became known as theDeutschrömer( "German Romans" ) because of their preference for Italian over German art.[2]
Between 1869 and 1874 he painted two versions ofPlato's Symposium.[4]
In 1873 Feuerbach moved toVienna,having been appointed professor of history painting at theAcademy.[2]Among his students wereLudwig Deutsch,Rudolf ErnstandJean Discart.Later, Feuerbach developed a disagreement with architectTheophil Hansenover his ceiling muralThe Fall of the Titans,painted for the Great Hall of the new academy building on theRingstrasse.While in Vienna he came to knowJohannes Brahms.After Feuerbach's death, Brahms composedNänie,a piece for chorus and orchestra, in his memory.
Last years
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In 1877 Feuerbach resigned from his post at the Vienna Academy and moved to Venice, where he died in 1880.[2]
Following his death, his step-motherHenriette,to whom he had always been close, and who had always done much to promote his career, wrote a book entitledEin Vermächtnis( "A Testament" or "A Legacy" ), including his letters and autobiographical notes. It proved enormously successful and greatly enhanced his posthumous reputation.[5]
According to the1911Encyclopædia Britannica:
He was steeped in classic knowledge, and his figure compositions have the statuesque dignity and simplicity ofGreekart. He was the first to realize the danger arising from contempt of technique, that mastery of craftsmanship was needed to express even the loftiest ideas, and that an ill-drawn coloured cartoon can never be the supreme achievement in art.[3]
His works are housed at leading public galleries in Germany. Stuttgart has the second version ofIphigenia;Karlsruhe, theDante at Ravenna;Munich, theMedea;and Berlin,The Concert,his last important painting. Other major works includeThe Battle of the Amazons,Pietà,The Symposium of Plato,Orpheus and EurydiceandAriosto in the Park of Ferrara.[3]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^"Home - Feuerbachhaus Speyer".feuerbachhaus.de.
- ^abcdefghArtist biography inGerman Masters of the Nineteenth Century,p.268
- ^abcdEncyclopædia Britannica,1911
- ^J.G. Lesher."Some Notable Afterimages of Plato's Symposium".Harvard University.Archived fromthe originalon 25 January 2021.Retrieved30 January2018.
- ^Schiff, Gert, "An Epoch of longing" inGerman Masters of the Nineteenth Century,pp.24–7
Sources
edit- Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)..Encyclopædia Britannica(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920)..Encyclopedia Americana.
External links
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- Links to works
- German masters of the nineteenth century: paintings and drawings from the Federal Republic of Germany,a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Anselm Feuerbach (no. 25–28)