Bildnis der Prinzessin Friederike Herzogin von Sachsen-Anhalt in grünem Samtkleid mit hermelinbesetztem Umhang

Heinrich Olivier (2 July 1783,

Dessau Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...

- 3 March 1848,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

) was a German painter, illustrator and graphic artist.

Early life

He was born to the

pedagogue Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

, and his wife, the opera singer, Louise Neidhart. His brothers,

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

and

Friedrich Friedrich may refer to: Names * Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' * Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' Other * Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Year ...

also became painters. Like his brothers, he took his first art lessons from 1801 to 1802, with Carl Wilhelm Kolbe and Christian Haldenwang. From 1801, he also studied

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

. He likely took classes at the there as well, based on the entries at the Akademie's exhibition in 1803. The following year, he went with Ferdinand to

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

then, in 1807, to Paris. There, he made copies of the

Old Masters In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

Career

Except for a brief return to Paris in 1810, he worked in Dessau until 1813. That year, he joined the

Russian-German Legion German-Russian or Russian-German (with or without hyphen) may refer to: * Germany–Russia relations (c.f. a "German–Russian treaty") *Germans in the old Russian Empire or present-day Russia ** Russia Germans or Germans from Russia ** History of G ...

as an officer. When the

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

came to an end, he returned to Vienna. During this time, he earned his living creating illustrations for popular magazines. He was also rumored to be "close to" the writer,

Dorothea von Schlegel Dorothea Friederike von Schlegel (; 24 October 1764 – 3 August 1839) was a German novelist and translator. Life She was born as Brendel Mendelssohn in 1764 in Berlin.In older literature and on her gravestone one finds the date 1763, but this is ...

, eldest daughter of the philosopher,

Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or 'Je ...

, who was almost twenty years his senior. His financial situation forced a return to Dessau, where he became increasingly less able to support himself with his art. After a time, he moved to Berlin, where he found a position as a drawing and language teacher. He died there at the age of sixty-five.

References

Sources

* * (Familienartikel) * Lisa Hackmann, Sylva van der Heyden: "Olivier, Heinrich", in: Bénédicte Savoy, France Nerlich (Eds.): ''Pariser Lehrjahre. Ein Lexikon zur Ausbildung deutscher Maler in der französischen Hauptstadt. Vol.1: 1793-1843'', de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2013, , pp. 217–218.

External links

More works by Olivier
@ ArtNet * {{DEFAULTSORT:Olivier, Heinrich 1783 births 1848 deaths 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German illustrators Leipzig University alumni People from Dessau-Roßlau