Adolf Friedrich Wilhelm Wachenhusen (27 May 1859 – 2 May 1925) was a German
landscape artist
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 ...
,
draftsman
A drafter (also draughtsman / draughtswoman in British and Commonwealth English, draftsman / draftswoman or drafting technician in American and Canadian English) is an engineering technician who makes detailed technical drawings or plans for m ...
and
etcher
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
. The focus of his work was on the countryside of his home region,
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg (; nds, label=Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin ...
.
Life
At the urging of his father, a Schwerin ministerial secretary, Wachenhusen went after attending high school in Schwerin in 1880 to study architecture at the
Polytechnikum Karlsruhe. He moved in 1881 to the
Academy
An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...
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. ...
, to study painting. After the change in 1884 to the
Grand Ducal Saxon School of Arts of Weimar, he continued to study under the landscape painter
Theodor Hagen. In 1889 he moved to Berlin, attended the
Academy of Fine Arts
The following is a list of notable art schools.
Accredited non-profit art and design colleges
* Adelaide Central School of Art
* Alberta College of Art and Design
* Art Academy of Cincinnati
* Art Center College of Design
* The Art Institute o ...
and painted a year with
Eugen Bracht
Eugen Felix Prosper Bracht (3 June 1842 – 5 November 1921) was a German landscape painter.
Biography
Bracht was born in Morges, Waadt (near Lake Geneva in Switzerland) of German parents. His family later moved to Darmstadt, Germany, where ...
. Then he worked as head of a drawing and painting school in Berlin. Since 1889 he was also a member of the Association of Berlin Artists. In 1892 to 1895 Wachenhusen had several stays in
Ahrenshoop
Ahrenshoop is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Rügen district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany on the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula of the Baltic Sea. It used to be a small fishing village, but is today known for its tourism and as a holid ...
on the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
. Here together with
Paul Müller-Kaempff he ran the painting school of St Lukas during the summer months. Müller-Kaempff lived here since 1892. Study trips led Wachenhusen 1892 to northern Italy and in 1894 to Holland, where he was in
Volendam
Volendam () is a fishing town in the municipality of Edam-Volendam, province of North Holland, Netherlands. As of 1 January 2021, it has a population of 22,715. It is twinned with Coventry, England.
History
Originally, Volendam was the location o ...
and the artists' colony
Katwijk
Katwijk (), also spelled Katwyk, is a coastal municipality and town in the province of South Holland, which is situated in the mid-western part of the Netherlands.
The Oude Rijn ("Old Rhine") river flows through the town and into the North Se ...
.
On March 1, 1897, Wachenhusen married the Dresden opera singer Eva Baroness von Gillern. In the same year Wachenhusen built his house to his own plans on "Schifferberg 10" in Ahrenshoop. As well as Müller-Kaempff, fellow artists
Anna Gerresheim,
Elisabeth von Eicken
Elisabeth von Eicken (18 July 1862 – 21 July 1940) was a German landscape painter.
Life
Elisabeth von Eicken was born as the third daughter of Hermann Wilhelm von Eicken (1816–1873) and Anna Elisabeth Borchers (1836–1916) in Mülheim an der ...
and
:de:Fritz Grebe had already settled here before him. It was soon the Ahrenshoop artists' colony, whose founders also include Wachenhusen. He counted with the painters Theobald Schorn and Paul Müller-Kaempff among the founders of ''Ahrenshooper Kunstkaten'' (art cottage) which opened 1909. In the meantime Wachenhusen had from about 1903 a residence in Hamburg, where he also led a painting school. After the death of his wife in 1910 he married in 1912 his second wife, the 20 years younger Lucie Schindowski, a former painting student. In 1909 he was appointed professor by the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg.
Wachenhusen left Ahrenshoop with the end of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in 1918. His house and that next to it, the "Dünenhaus" (dune house), where he have had his own sommer painting school, were sold in 1920. He lived now mostly in his home in Schwerin-Görries. After his death in 1925 the urn funeral took place on the "Schifferfriedhof" (skipper-graveyard) of Ahrenshoop. In 1926 a Memorial exhibition take place in the
Mecklenburg State Museum Schwerin.
The works of Wachenhusen are applied in the painting manner of
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
. They included next to the mainly landscapes also forest and animal motifs, which is certainly due to his passion for hunting. Wachenhusen was, in addition to the membership of the Association of Berlin Artists, member of the General German Arts Cooperative, the Association of German Illustrators, in the Association for Original Etching in Berlin, the Hamburger Kunstverein von 1817 (Art Association), the Hamburger Künstlerverein von 1832 (Artist Association) and the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archaeology. He was an honorary member of the
Académie des Beaux-Arts
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...
in Paris.
Works (selection)
Wachenhusen was regularly represented with his works between 1884 and 1914 at the well known exhibitions of the
Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...
in Berlin, and the "Great Art Exhibition Berlin". He also shows his landscapes at the Mecklenburg Art Exhibition in 1911 and in the
Munich Glass Palace (1891). He had his first solo exhibition in 1902 at the Hamburger Kunstverein von 1817.
* ''Mond über dem Bodden'' (Moon over the lagoon)
* ''Hof im Mecklenburgischen'' (Farm in Mecklenburg)
* ''Steilküste bei Ahrenshoop'' (Steep coast near Ahrenshoop)
* ''Mecklenburgische Winterlandschaft'' (1887) (Winter landscape)
* ''Am Schweriner See'' (1890) (On the
Lake Schwerin
Lake SchwerinRügen
Rügen (; la, Rugia, ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where ...
)
* ''Paar am Hafen von Volendam'' (around 1894) (Couple at the harbor of Volendam)
* Mappenwerke: Verlag Kähler Hamburg, 1902: ''Malerisches aus Hamburg, Aus Lübeck und Umgebung, Von Cuxhaven nach Helgoland''
(3 Folders with
Lithographs
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
from Northern Germany)
Further reading
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References
External links
*
Paintings from Friedrich Wachenhusenat
Artnet
Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City, in the United States, and is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly traded company based in Berlin that is listed on t ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wachenhusen, Friedrich
People from Schwerin
19th-century German painters
19th-century German male artists
German male painters
20th-century German painters
20th-century German male artists
1859 births
1925 deaths