Johann Caspar Weidenmann (13 October 1805 – 6 June 1850) was a
Swiss
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* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
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*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
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painter and draughtsman. He was one of the first European artists to travel across
Algeria, in 1838 and 1839.
Life
Childhood and adolescence
Weidenmann was born in
Winterthur (
canton of Zürich
The canton of Zürich (german: Kanton Zürich ; rm, Chantun Turitg; french: Canton de Zurich; it, Canton Zurigo) is a Swiss canton in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of (as of ), it is the most populous canton in the ...
). His father, Hans Kaspar Weidenmann (1778–1859), was the city's "fountain master", responsible for the water supply network. His mother, Anna Dorothea, née Hirzel (1780–1821) was a teacher. She died when Johann Caspar, the eldest of her nine children, was only 16 years old. A year later, Cleophea Scheitlin – a sister of the scholar and author
Peter Scheitlin – became the children's stepmother.
Johann Caspar, a "lively, cheerful" boy, took his first drawing lessons from 1818 to 1820 at the boys' school in Winterthur. From 1820 to 1822 he served his apprenticeship as a
decorator. He also learned to copy
Old Masters, and he painted his first
portraits, which earned him recognition as a talented young artist. Therefore, several wealthy citizens of his home town donated substantial sums so that he could go to Italy for his further artistic education. (Of the portraits below, only the drawing of his brother Friedrich as a boy was created before 1824. The rest date from 1831/1833.)
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Der Brunnenmeister.jpg, The father: "fountain master" Hans Kaspar Weidenmann
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Cleophea Weidenmann-Scheitlin (Ausschnitt).jpg, The amiable stepmother: Cleophea Weidenmann-Scheitlin (1780–1857)
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Friedrich als Knabe.jpg, The little brother: Friedrich Weidenmann (1814–1882)
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Friedrich Weidenmann.jpg, Friedrich around 1831/33
Italy
From 1824 until 1829, Weidenmann lived in
Florence; later in
Rome, 1829–1831 and 1833–1837. In 1831 he had to return to Winterthur for two years, to earn money as a portrait painter.
In Florence, he led quite a solitary life for almost five years, training his artistic skills on his own by copying famous paintings at the city's art galleries. In Rome, however, he quickly made friends with other young artists from German-speaking countries and from
Scandinavia, who held regular meetings at their social club, visited each other's studios and frequented the city's pubs. Among them were
Thomas Fearnley and
Salomon Corrodi as well as the sculptors
Herman Wilhelm Bissen and
Heinrich Kümmel Heinrich may refer to:
People
* Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
* Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
*Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...
.
Joseph Anton Koch and
Johann Christian Reinhart
Johann Christian Reinhart (24 January 1761 – 9 June 1847) was a German painter and engraver. He was one of the founders, along with Joseph Anton Koch, of German romantic classical landscape painting.
Biography
Reinhart was born in Hof, Bava ...
were the Grand Old Men revered by the young painters.
Weidenmann relished the freedoms that Rome offered to young artists, but he was suffering from continual financial pressures. He felt forced to paint subjects that did not particularly interest him, but which he was occasionally able to sell in his home town:
genre scenes, portraits and copies of Old Masters. He would have loved to create large-format
history painting
History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...
s, but for lack of commissions, he never got beyond drawing sketches of historical scenes. Fortunately,
landscape painting offered a delightful alternative. In summer, he left Rome, either alone or with some friends, and went hiking in the
Monti Sabini
The Monti Sabini is a mountain range in the Apennines of Latium, central Italy.
It is located in a North-South direction between the Monti Reatini at the east and the Tiber valley at the west. The upper section is the Monti Sabini proper, on th ...
, the
Alban Hills
The Alban Hills ( it, Colli Albani) are the caldera remains of a quiescent volcano, volcanic complex in Italy, located southeast of Rome and about north of Anzio. The high Monte Cavo forms a highly visible peak the centre of the caldera, bu ...
and the
Monti Lepini
The Monti Lepini (Italian: Lepini mountains) are a mountain range which belongs to the Anti-Apennines of the Lazio region of central Italy, between the two provinces of Latina and Rome.
The range borders to the north with the Colli Albani, to th ...
. Painting and drawing landscapes, people and animals ''
En plein air'' became more and more important to him. "I love doing it; perhaps I do it too often" he wrote in 1836.
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Volskergebirge bei Civitavecchia.png, In the Monti Lepini range, near Civitavecchia
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Italian Peasant Woman with a Broom, NGA 73416.jpg, ''Italian Peasant Woman with a Broom'', National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
in Washington, D.C.
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Mädchen.jpg, Italian girl
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Römerin 2.jpg, Roman woman
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Atelierbild.png, At the studio: The models are inspecting the painting while the artist is taking a break (1836)
Algeria
Weidenmann was also acquainted with
Horace Vernet, the director of the
French Academy in Rome, who had visited Algeria in 1833. Deeply impressed by the paintings Vernet had brought back from Algeria and by the stories he told the young painters about this country, Weidenmann eventually decided to go to North Africa himself in 1838. But whereas Vernet had undertaken an official French mission, Weidenmann was one of the first European artists to travel to Algeria on his own, out of thirst for adventure. He stayed there for a year and nine months (from March 1838 to December 1839) – longer than any other European artist of his generation. More than 30 years later,
Albert Lebourg was the first to surpass this length of stay.
From
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
, Weidenmann travelled east: first on an overcrowded ship to
Bône; from there on horseback to
Constantine
Constantine most often refers to:
* Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I
* Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria
Constantine may also refer to:
People
* Constantine (name), a masculine given na ...
, which had only been captured by French troops seven months earlier. He made good use of every opportunity to get to know the countryside and the local people and to paint; his travel expenses were met by portraying Europeans. He stayed in Constantine for almost five months. On his exhausting journey back to Bône, he fell ill with
malaria and had to spend two months on the sick bed. In the following year he was able to travel again and to paint to his heart's content, mainly in the fertile
Mitidja
Mitidja, (Arabic: , Berber: Mettijet ⵎⴻⵜⵙⵉⵛⵝ) is a plain stretching along the outskirts of Algiers in northern Algeria. It is about long, with a width of . Traditionally devoted largely to agriculture and serving as the breadbasket ...
plain south of Algiers. But in November 1839, the security situation deteriorated so much that he was forced to leave Algeria. In 1840/41 he probably stayed in Italy again; then he returned to his home country.
Johann Caspar Weidenmann (1805-1850). Szene in Nordafrika, 1838-39. Kunst Museum Winterthur Reinhart.jpg, Coffee shop in Constantine, 1838
Johann Caspar Weidenmann (1805-1850). Nordafrika, 1838-39. Kunst Museum Winterthur Reinhart.jpg, Market at Coudiat-Aty near Constantine, 1838
Johann Caspar Weidenmann (1805-1850). Wuestendorf in Algerien, 1838-39. Kunst Museum Winterthur Reinhart.jpg, Bab-Azun, a suburb of Algiers, 1838/39, Winterthur Museum of Art
Johann Caspar Weidenmann (1805-1850). Beduine aus der Wüste Sahara, 1838-39. Kunst Museum Winterthur Reinhart.jpg, Bedouin from the Sahara, 1838/39
Johann Caspar Weidenmann (1805-1850). Intérieur eines Hauses in Algier2, 1838-39. Kunst Museum Winterthur Reinhart.jpg, Interior of a house in Algiers, 1838/39, Winterthur Museum of Art
Last years
In
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, the paintings and drawings Weidenmann had brought home from North Africa were admired by everybody and praised by art experts. At the second Swiss art exhibition in May 1842, Weidenmann was allowed to exhibit 99 works, more than any other painter. But he couldn't sell anything. So once again, he had to accept commissions to paint portraits. He also worked as a private teacher in Winterthur; his most talented student was
August Weckesser. In 1847/48 Weidenmann lived in
Munich for about a year, where he became a member of the city's artist society. Soon after his return to Winterthur, he co-founded the artist society in his home town.
His stay in Algeria had severely affected his health; he suffered from chronic bouts of fever. On 6 June 1850 he died at the age of only 44. "His funeral was attended by more people than those of the richest and most respected of his fellow-citizens, which shows how much he was grieved for, both as a man and as an artist."
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Sterbender Reiher.jpg, Dying heron (Weidenmann's last work, 1849/50; unfinished)
Work
Paintings and drawings
Weidenmann created over 1000 works, mainly landscapes, portraits and genre paintings. His style is very realistic; he drew and painted his subjects from a detached perspective. Almost all of the landscapes were created ''En plein air''. Weidenmann depicted the scenery of North Africa, the foreign people and their culture – hitherto completely unknown to most Europeans – exactly as he saw them, without romanticizing. The ''Portrait of a Camel'' holds a special position in art history: Never before had an exotic animal been immortalized in such a portrait, boldly staged against a neutral background.
The artist society Weidenmann had co-founded bought some of his works; and a year after his death, the civic community of Winterthur purchased his artistic estate: 35 oil paintings as well as 60 drawings and watercolours. These works are still owned by the City of Winterthur and the
Winterthur Museum of Art
The Kunst Museum Winterthur (English: The Winterthur Museum of Art) is an art museum in Winterthur, Switzerland run by the local ''Kunstverein''. From its beginnings, the activities of the Kunstverein Winterthur were focused on contemporary art - ...
.
Johann Caspar Weidenmann (1805-1850). Portrait eines Kamels, 1838-39. Kunst Museum Winterthur Reinhart.jpg, Portrait of a camel in Algeria, 1838/39, Winterthur Museum of Art
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Aussicht bei Constantine.jpg, Scenery near Constantine, 1838, Winterthur Museum of Art
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Constantine.jpg, Constantine, 1838, Winterthur Museum of Art
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Brunnen bei Algier.jpg, Fountain near Algiers, 1838/39
Johann Caspar Weidenmann, Palmengruppe in der Mitidja.jpg, Group of palm trees in the Mitidja plain, 1839, Winterthur Museum of Art
Letters
From Italy and from Algeria, Weidenmann wrote letters to his family, friends and acquaintances in Winterthur. 22 letters have been preserved, which he wrote from Italy to his patron and paternal friend Salomon Brunner, between 1827 and 1838. In addition, an essay published six years after Weidenmann's death contains long extracts from letters he wrote while he was travelling across Algeria.
[Hafner, Albert (1856)]
* Extracts from Weidenmann's letters:
PDF file (in German, 15 pages).
Notes
Sources
* Häsli, Richard (1966). ''Johann Caspar Weidenmann. Ein Winterthurer Maler 1805–1850.'' Winterthur: Stadtbibliothek.
* Hafner, Albert (1856)
"Johann Kaspar Weidenmann und seine algerischen Studien."''Neujahrsblatt von der Bürgerbibliothek zu Winterthur.'' Winterthur: Ziegler, pp. 325–340.
* Fehlmann, Marc (2014). "Johann Caspar Weidenmann.
''Homegrown. Winterthurer Malerei durch die Jahrhunderte.''Winterthur: Museum Oskar Reinhart, pp. 18–19 and p. 48.
External links
Works by Weidenmann at the Winterthur Museum of Art*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weidenmann, Johann Caspar
1805 births
1850 deaths
19th-century Swiss painters
Swiss portrait painters
Swiss landscape painters
Swiss male painters
People from Winterthur
19th-century Swiss male artists