Herman Grimm
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Herman Grimm (6 January 1828 in Kassel16 June 1901 in Berlin) was a German academic and writer.


Family and education

Grimm's father was
Wilhelm Grimm Wilhelm Carl Grimm (also Karl; 24 February 178616 December 1859) was a German author and anthropologist, and the younger brother of Jacob Grimm, of the literary duo the Brothers Grimm. Life and work Wilhelm was born in February 1786 in Hanau, ...
(1786–1859), and his uncle
Jakob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm's law of linguistics, the co-author of th ...
(1785–1863), the
philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
compilers of indigenous folk tales ("
Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...
"). His other uncle was the painter engraver Ludwig Emil Grimm (1790–1863). Herman Grimm is believed to have had only one (known) child at a young age, Martin Grimm. From 1841 Herman attended the
Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium The Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium (or Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium) was a secondary school ( ''Gymnasium'') in Berlin. History The school originated from a Realschule founded by the Pietist Johann Julius Hecker in 1747, the first secondary school ...
in Berlin. He belonged to a clique associated with
Bettina von Arnim Bettina von Arnim (the Countess of Arnim) (4 April 178520 January 1859), born Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano, was a German writer and novelist. Bettina (or Bettine) Brentano was a writer, publisher, composer, singer, visual art ...
(1785–1859), wife of the late poet
Achim von Arnim Carl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim (26 January 1781 – 21 January 1831), better known as Achim von Arnim, was a German poet, novelist, and together with Clemens Brentano and Joseph von Eichendorff, a leading figure of German Romanticism. ...
(1781–1831), and started publishing drama and novels. He began legal and philological studies at the universities of
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
and
Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
.


Career

In 1857 he visited
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
where the artistic circle of
Peter von Cornelius Peter von Cornelius (23 September 1783, Düsseldorf – 6 March 1867, Berlin) was a German painter; one of the main representatives of the Nazarene movement. Life Early years Cornelius was born in Düsseldorf. From the age of twelve he attend ...
brought his interests to art. In 1859, he married
Gisela von Arnim Gisela von Arnim (also Giesela; August 30, 1827 in Berlin – April 4, 1889 in Florence) was a German writer, mainly of fairy tales. Biography Gisela was the youngest child of Achim and Bettina von Arnim. She was not formally educated, being t ...
(1827–1889), the Arnim's daughter, and published his treatise, ''Die Akademie der Künste und das Verhältniß der Künstler zum Staate''. His short-lived periodical, ''Über Künstler und Kunstwerke'' (1864–1867), published many important essays. It also contained some of the first photographic illustrations of art in a magazine. The first volume of his biography of Michelangelo, ''Das Leben Michelangelos'', began appearing in 1868. He wrote his dissertation in 1868 from
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
and his habilitation (1870) in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
. In 1871 he weighed in on the Hans Holbein " Meyer Madonna" debate concluding against the sound reasoning of the "Holbein convention" of eminent scholars, that the
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 ...
version was the autograph one. He accepted the chair in the newly created discipline of history of art (''Lehrstuhl für Kunstgeschichte'') in Berlin in 1872 and remained there the rest of his life. Grimm published the first (though incomplete) edition of his ''Das Leben Raphaels'' in 1872. Grimm's art history writing is characteristic of the period consolidation of standards following the unification of
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, known as the
Gründerzeit (; "founders' period") was the economic phase in 19th-century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. In Central Europe, the age of industrialisation had been taking place since the 1840s. That period is not precisely ...
. When Friedrich Waagen, for example, criticized in the early issues of the ''Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst'',
Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...
's aesthetic taste of some fifty years before, Grimm, the spokesman for the Gründerzeit, took it personally, refuting Waagen effectively point by point. Grimm's ''Beiträge zur deutschen Culturgeschichte'', essays about important cultural personalities, appeared in 1897. Throughout his life his biographies passed through numerous editions. At his death he was succeeded by
Heinrich Wölfflin Heinrich Wölfflin (; 21 June 1864 – 19 July 1945) was a Swiss art historian, esthetician and educator, whose objective classifying principles ("painterly" vs. "linear" and the like) were influential in the development of formal analysis in ar ...
. His students included
Alfred Lichtwark Alfred Lichtwark (14 November 1852 – 13 January 1914) was a German art historian, museum curator, and art educator in Hamburg. He is one of the founders of museum education and the art education movement. Background and career Alfred Li ...
;
Julius Meier-Graefe , ro, Reșița), Resicabánya Dist., Krassó-Szörény Co, Bánság, Royal Hungary, Imperial and Royal Austria(now Romania) , death_date = , death_place = Vevey, VD, Switzerland , nationality = German, Hungarian Ge ...
studied under him but did not receive a degree.


Reputation

Grimm's reputation is that of the arch-Romantic, Gründerzeit art historian. He viewed himself as the intellectual successor of Goethe. His approach to art history was through the "Great Masters", and arranging significance of art through a biographical account of art history. His tastes both typified and led German and continental bourgeois taste.
Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
,
Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...
and
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
were the great writers of their age; in art, only
Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...
and Michelangelo could compare. The nineteenth century's adoration of Raphael is in large part Grimm's doing. Wölfflin wrote that Grimm showed indifference to all but the very great. This approach to art history is shared by other historians of his time, including
Carl Justi Carl Justi (2 August 1832, in Marburg – 9 December 1912, in Bonn) was a German art historian, who practised a biographical approach to art history. Professor of art history at the University of Bonn, he wrote three major critical biographies ...
, but was personally savaged in the lectures of Anton Springer. Grimm was one of the first to carefully study
reception theory Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes each particular reader's reception or interpretation in making meaning from a literary text. Reception theory is generally referred to as audience reception in the an ...
, though this aspect of his work is seldom considered. In the 3rd edition of his life of Raphael (1896) he added a section on ''Rezeptionsgeschichte''. Perhaps because formal analysis and the sanctity of viewing the original work of art mattered so little to him, he was among the first to use
lantern slides The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...
(reproductive images) in his lectures. Grimm's writings were gradually supplanted by superior scholarship in the twentieth century. His emotional approach to art-historical debate, as evidenced by the Holbein Madonna incident, proved his allegiances were usually closer to nationalism than art history. In Germany, his concept of the
erman Erman Rašiti may refer to: Given name * Erman Bulucu (born 1989), Turkish footballer * Erman Eltemur (born 1993), Turkish karateka * Erman Güraçar (born 1974), Turkish footballer * Erman Kılıç (born 1983), Turkish footballer * Erman Kunter (b ...
hero as a mover of history was embraced by the
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
, who saw to it that new and repackaged versions of his writings, such as ''Vom Geist der Deutschen'' (1943), appeared up until the war's end.


Sources

*Bazin, Germain. Histoire de l'histoire de l'art: de Vasari à nos jours. Paris: Albin Michel, 1986, pp. 158, 530–531 *Dilly, Heinrich. Kunstgeschichte als Institution: Studien zur Geschichte einer Diziplin. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1979, p. 41 mentioned *Kultermann, Udo. The History of Art History. New York: Abaris, 1993, pp. 126–27, 147 *Metzler Kunsthistoriker Lexikon: zweihundert Porträts deutschsprachiger Autoren aus vier Jahrhunderten. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1999, pp. 130–133 *Schlink, Wilhelm. "Herman Grimm (1828–1901): Epigone und Vorläufer." In Osinski, Jutta and Saure, Felix, eds. Aspekte der Romantik: zur Verleihung des „Brüder Grimm-Preises“ der Philipps-Universität Marburg im Dezember 1999. Kassel: Brüder-Grimm-Gesellschaft, 2001 pp. 73–93. *Schuchhardt, Wolfgang, ed. Vom Geist der Deutschen, Gedanken von Herman Grimm: ein Brevier. Berlin: F. A. Herbig, 1943 *Wölfflin, Heinrich. Heinrich Wölfflin, 1864–1945: Autobiographie, Tagebücher und Briefe. Joseph Ganter, ed. 2nd ed. Basel: Schwabe & Co., 1984, p. 492


Bibliography

* Die Cartons von Peter von Cornelius in den Sälen der Königl. Akademie der Künste zu Berlin. Berlin: Hertz, 1859 * Leben Michelangelo's. 2 vols. Hanover: Carl Rümpler, 1860–1863 nd Berlin: Gustav Schade English, Life of Michael Angelo. Boston: Little, Brown, 1865 * "Ist die moderne Kunstgeschichte eine auf solider Grundlage ruhende Wissenschaft? Gründe warum nicht. Notwendigkeit einer änderung." In ''Über Künstler und Kunstwerke'' 1 (1864): 4–8 * Die Venus von Milo. Rafael und Michel Angelo: Zwei Essays von Herman Grimm. Boston: De Vries, Ibarra & Co., 1864, partially translated into English, The Venus de Milo. Boston: J. J. Hawes, 1868, collected and republished as, Zehn ausgewählte Essays zur Einführung in das Studium der Neuern Kunst. Berlin: Dümmler, 1871 * Über Künstler und Kunstwerke. 2 vols. Berlin: F. Dümmler's Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1865–1867 * Albrecht Dürer. Berlin: C. G. Lüderitz, 1866 * eyer Madonna opinion"Die Holbein'sche Madonna." Preussische Jahrbücher 28 (1871): 418–31 * Das Leben Raphaels von Urbino: italienischer Text von Vasari übersetzt und Commentar. Berlin: F. Dümmler, 1872, irst complete edition, 2nd, 1886, 3rd ed., 1896 contains the chapter on Rezeptionsgeschichte of Raphael English, The Life of Raphael. Boston: Cupples and Hurd, 1888 * The Destruction of Rome: a Letter. Boston: Cupples, Upham, 1886 * Beiträge zur deutschen Culturgeschichte. Berlin: W. Herts, 1897 * Fragmente. Berlin: W. Spemann, 1900 {{DEFAULTSORT:Grimm, Herman 1828 births 1901 deaths Writers from Kassel Humboldt University of Berlin faculty German Buddhists German male writers