Edward Theodore Compton, usually referred to as E. T. Compton, (29 July 1849 – 22 March 1921) was an English-born, German artist,
illustrator and
mountain climber
Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...
. He is well known for his paintings and drawings of alpine scenery, and as a mountaineer made 300 major ascents including no fewer than 27 first ascents.
Life
Compton was born in
Stoke Newington in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, the son of Theodore Compton, an art-loving insurance agent, and grew up in a deeply religious
Quaker household. He attended
Sidcot School
Sidcot School is a British co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils, associated with the Religious Society of Friends. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The school is based in the Mendip Hills near the village of ...
from 1861 to 1864 and various art schools, including, for a time, the
Royal Academy in London, but otherwise he was mainly self-taught in art.
In 1867, wanting the best education for their artistically-talented son, and due to the high cost of schooling in England, the family decided to emigrate to Germany settling in
Darmstadt. The city at that time was the seat of the
Grand Duchy of Hesse under
Grand Duke Ludwig III, and a community of artists had sprung up there. Entries in Compton's diary show that both he and his father were art teachers - Alice, the Princess of Hesse numbered amongst Edward's students.
[See: Brandes, J & S. ''E T Compton''.]Darmstadt Artists' Colony
The Darmstadt Artists’ Colony refers both to a group of Jugendstil artists as well as to the buildings in Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt in which these artists lived and worked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The artists were largely fi ...
.
Between 1867-68 Compton toured the
Rhineland
The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section.
Term
Historically, the Rhinelands ...
,
Mosel and
Eifel areas of Germany, making numerous sketches. In July 1868, the entire Compton family traveled to the
Bernese Oberland
The Bernese Oberland ( en, Bernese Highlands, german: Berner Oberland; gsw, Bärner Oberland; french: Oberland bernois), the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern, is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context ...
, the alpine scenery encountered during this trip, particularly the view of the
Eiger,
Mönch
The Mönch (, German: "monk") at is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland. Together with the Eiger and the Jungfrau, it forms a highly recognisable group of mountains, visible from far away.
The Mönch lies on the border between the c ...
and
Jungfrau
The Jungfrau ( "maiden, virgin"), at is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Ju ...
peaks, inspiring Edward to become a mountain painter.
[See Wichmann.][Se]
E T Compton, a brilliant artist
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In 1869, Compton was living in Munich and two years later for the first time exhibited his work at the Glass Palace.[E T Compton](_blank)
(Ketterer Kunst)
In 1872 he married Auguste Plotz and for two years they travelled through the Tyrol
Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
, Carinthia, Italy and Switzerland. From 1874, the couple settled in Feldafing on Lake Starnberg
Lake Starnberg, or ''Starnberger See'' ) — called Lake Würm, or ''Würmsee'' , until 1962 — is Germany's second-largest body of fresh water, having great depth, and fifth-largest lake by area. It and its surroundings lie in three different Ba ...
, building a comfortable house there called Villa Compton.
In the following years, Compton travelled to the mountains of Austria, Scandinavia, North Africa, Corsica and Spain recording his impressions in a variety of oil and watercolors paintings and ink drawings. Although alpine scenes predominated, Compton also visited and drew other areas such as the High Tatras
The High Tatras or High Tatra Mountains ( Slovak: Vysoké Tatry; pl, Tatry Wysokie; rue, Высокі Татри,'' Vysoki Tatry''; hu, Magas-Tátra; german: Hohe Tatra; french: Hautes Tatras), are a mountain range along the border of norther ...
in eastern Europe, the Scottish Highlands
The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland S ...
, the Hebrides
The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebr ...
, the Lofoten Islands
Lofoten () is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches and untouched lands. There are two towns, Svolvæ ...
and Northern Cape in Norway, and the Colombian Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
.
In 1880 Compton became a member of the Royal Academy, London. Besides his work as a painter he also became well known as a book illustrator for the German and Austrian Alpine Association (DAV) with titles such as "In the high mountains" by Emil Zsigmondy (1889), "About Fels and Firn" by H. Hess (1901) and "Mountaineering in Pictures" by Alfred Steinitzer (1913). In England he was also in demand as an illustrator providing pictures for a range of titles (see below).
In 1909 Compton accompanied his friend, the mountaineer Karl Blodig
Karl Blodig (16 October 1859 – 7 September 1956) was an Austrian mountaineer, optician, and writer. Blodig was the first to successfully climb all Alpine peaks of over 4000 meters, completing his final summit around 1911. He wrote about these c ...
on many tours in the Silvretta
The Silvretta Alps are a mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps shared by Tirol, Vorarlberg (both in Austria) and Graubünden ( Switzerland). The Austrian states of Tirol and Vorarlberg are connected by a pass road ( Silvretta Hochalpenst ...
mountains. At the time of the First World War he was invited by the Austrian army to paint from the mountain front but was forbidden to do so by the Bavarian High Command. He was also excluded from the Munich Artists' Association, because he was English.
Apart from his art, Compton was also an excellent climber, highly regarded by Blodig for his "brilliant mountaineering skill on ice and rock, his truly admirable perseverance, his inexhaustible patience in bearing hardships". He was a member of the exclusive Alpine Club
The first alpine club, the Alpine Club, based in the United Kingdom, was founded in London in 1857 as a gentlemen's club. It was once described as:
:"a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of whi ...
and the German and Austrian Alpine Association (DAV).
Amongst his notable ascents were: Torre di Brenta first climbed in 1882; Cima Brenta, first climbed by the south wall in 1882; Odle} (Large Fermeda); Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey
The Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey (4,112 m) is a mountain of the Mont Blanc massif in Italy. It is considered the most difficult and serious of the alpine 4000-m mountains to climb.
There are three tops to the mountain:
*''Pointe Güssfeldt'' ( ...
(ascent in 1905 with Karl Blodig); Grossglockner
The Grossglockner (german: Großglockner ; or just ''Glockner'') is, at 3,798 metres above the Adriatic (12,461 ft), the highest mountain in Austria and the highest mountain in the Alps east of the Brenner Pass. It is part of the larger Glo ...
, climbed at the age of 70!
Compton died in Feldafing on 22 July 1921, aged 72. His son Edward Harrison Compton and daughter Dora Compton were also mountain painters. His other daughter Marion was a flower and still life painter.
Art and influence
Initially painting in the English romantic tradition, Compton later developed a more realistic representation of nature, being guided by his true artistic ideas while retaining topographical accuracy. Even his early watercolors show the great importance of brightness and light and his work is also remarkable for its portrayal of the elements such as water and air, including ascending mist and fog. He can be regarded as an impressionist.
Although Compton never had much formal art education and did not found a school, he influenced artists such as Ernst Platz and Karl Arnold
Karl Arnold (21 March 1901 – 29 June 1958) was a German politician. He was Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1947 to 1956.
Early life and education
Arnold was born in Herrlishöfen in Württemberg on 21 March 1901. He was tr ...
as well as his son Edward Harrison Compton and daughter Dora Compton.
See also
* List of German painters
This is a list of German painters.
A
> second column was into info box -->
* Hans von Aachen (1552–1615)
* Aatifi (born 1965)
* Karl Abt (1899–1985)
* Tomma Abts (born 1967)
* Andreas Achenbach (1815–1910)
* Oswald Achenbach (1827 ...
Notes
Books illustrated by Compton
*Knight, Francis A.
By leafy ways - Brief studies from the book of nature
' (Roberts Bros., 1890).
*Knight, Francis A.
Idylls of the field
' (Roberts Bros., 1890).
*Various. ''The Picturesque Mediterranean''
Vol 1
Vol 2
(Cassell, 1890).
*Compton, Theodore & Morgan, C. L.
A Mendip valley, its inhabitants and surroundings
' (Edward Stanford, 1892).
*Compton, William Cookworthy.
Caesar's seventh campaign in Gaul, B.C. 52
' (George Bell and sons, 1907).
*Baillie-Grohman, W. A & Compton, E. H.
Germany
' (A & C Black, 1912).
* Wallraf-Richartz-Museum: ''Das Skizzenbuch einer Eifelwanderung im Jahre 1868.'' (Exhibition catalog). Köln 1985
Further reading
*Tallantire, Philip Alan. ''Edward Theodore Compton (1849-1921): Mountaineer and Mountain Painter'' (P.A. Tallantire, 1996).
*S. Wichmann. ''Compton: Edward Theodore und Edward Harrison, Maler und Alpinisten'' (Belser, 1999).
*Schopf, Oswald. ''Edward Theodore Compton (1849-1921), Bergsteiger und Bergmaler'' (Trauner, 2006).
*Brandes, Jürgen & Sibylle, Messner, R. ''E. T. Compton'' (Berg Publisher Rother, 2007).
External links
Biography of E T Compton
(by Gerhard Schirmer)
Mountain paintings by E T Compton (mountainpaintings.org)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Compton, Edward Theodore
19th-century German painters
German male painters
20th-century German painters
20th-century German male artists
19th-century English painters
English male painters
20th-century English painters
German illustrators
English illustrators
Landscape painters
English watercolourists
German mountain climbers
German people of English descent
1921 deaths
People educated at Sidcot School
German watercolourists
English mountain climbers
1849 births
19th-century German male artists
20th-century English male artists
19th-century English male artists