Bernhard Fries (16 May 1820 – 21 May 1879) was a German

landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composi ...

. He is associated with the

Düsseldorf school of painting The Düsseldorf school of painting is a term referring to a group of painters who taught or studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Academy (now the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf or Düsseldorf State ...

Biography

He was born in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. He studied under Carl Koopmann in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, and from 1835 to 1837 at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (german: Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, ...

, under Cornelius. He traveled in France and Austria, and stayed for a few years (1838–1840 and 1843–1846) in Italy. He spent some time from 1840 to 1843 at the Academy in Düsseldorf. Amongst his most important works is the cycle of 40 Italian landscapes (now in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

) that have been compared by some to the famous cycle by Carl Rottmann. Fries' Italian landscapes show careful composition and execution. After the completion of the series in 1866 he created the Italian views and Palermo Mamellen (in Schack Museum in Munich), Civitella, Garda, Rome, Naples, Palermo etc. as well as views of Heidelberg and motifs from the surrounding area. Fries died in Munich in 1879. A rich collection of drawings and sketchbooks and some of the most important oil paintings showing southern Italian seaside landscapes between Rome and Naples as well as Palermo are in the private collection of a descendant. His paintings are represented in various museums, such as the great art galleries and museums in Darmstadt, Halle, Karlsruhe, Munich (Neue Pinakothek and Schackgalerie), Stuttgart and Zurich. The Palatinate Museum in Heidelberg has a comprehensive collection of works by Fries.

Family

Fries was son of the wealthy banker, manufacturer of madder and collector of fine arts and paintings, . His very valuable art collection comprised important Dutch painting of the period 1700–1800, paintings of Claude Lorrain,

Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for ...

Joseph Anton Koch Joseph Anton Koch (27 July 1768 – 12 January 1839) was an Austrian painter of Neoclassicism and later the German Romantic movement; he is perhaps the most significant neoclassical landscape painter. Biography The Tyrolese painter was born i ...

and George Augustus Wallis. He is brother of the painter Ernst Fries. He was born in the art-loving family of bankers, which allowed him, unlike his colleagues, to live, travel and paint free of any financial worries. He was the nephew of the chemistry professor

Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner (31 October 1783 – 13 July 1857) was a German chemist, natural scientist and a professor of physics and chemistry. Biography Kastner received his doctorate in 1805 under the guidance of Johann Göttling and began l ...

, whose pupil was Justus von Liebig.

Sources

External links

1820 births 1879 deaths 19th-century German painters German male painters Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni German landscape painters Artists from Heidelberg 19th-century German male artists Düsseldorf school of painting {{Germany-painter-stub