Emil Zeiß (2 July 1833 – 14 April 1910) was a German

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

minister and painter. His body of work includes 33 sketchbooks and 1092 identified individual works, largely donated by his son to the Lippe Museum.

Life

Zeiß was born in the village of Stapelage in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

. He attended the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

. On 30 November 1859 he was admitted as a candidate for ministry in the

Reformed church Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Cal ...

after passing the first

theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

examination. Three years later, on 12 November 1862 he passed the second theological examination. He was called to be a pastor for the

Church of Lippe The Church of Lippe (german: link=no, Lippische Landeskirche) is a Reformed (Calvinist) member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany that covers what used to be the Principality of Lippe. Seat of the church administration is Detmold. The ...

in Barntrup and stayed there for two decades. In 1904 he suffered a stroke and a year later he retired. He died in 1910 in Schwalenberg, where his son, Alexander Zeiß held a pastorate from 1885 to 1938.Burkhard Meier, Vera Scheef und Heinrich Stiewe: ''Emil Zeiß 1833–1910: Ein Lippischer Pfarrer und Künstler''. Herausgegeben vom Lippischen Heimatbund und vom Landesverband Lippe, Verlag topp + möller, Detmold 2001,

Work

Zeiß worked mainly in

watercolors Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

and pencil, but there are some

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

s. His main subjects are

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

, town views and landscapes from 1860-1880. Although he occasionally weiterschenkte images to friends and relatives, he was in his lifetime, not to persuade, to participate in exhibitions, although there were requests to. He was also friends with the painter

Carl Gehrts Carl Gehrts, also Karl Gehrts, complete name Karl Heinrich Julius Gehrts (11 May 1853 – 17 July 1898) was a German painter, illustrator and academic scholar. As a professor, he taught at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Life Born in St. Paul ...

(1853-1898). Today, Zeiß's many paintings of towns and villages in the

Lippe Lippe () is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Höxter, Paderborn, Gütersloh, and district-free Bielefeld, which forms the region Ostwestfalen-Lippe. The d ...

area are important sources of local and regional history, showing the towns and villages before the advent of industrialization.

References

External links

Literature about Emil Zeiß
in the Catalog of the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Zeiss, Emil 1833 births 1910 deaths German Protestant clergy 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists People from Lippe University of Marburg alumni Artists from North Rhine-Westphalia