Peter Betthausen (born 27 June 1941) is a German
art historian.
Life
Born in
Harzgerode
Harzgerode is a town in the district of Harz in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
Geography
Harzgerode lies in the lower eastern part of the Harz mountain range on the Selke River, south of Quedlinburg. It is connected to Gernrode and Quedlinburg via Ale ...
, Betthausen studied
history of art
The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic visu ...
, history and
aesthetic at the
Humboldt University of Berlin
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...
.
From 1966 to 1986 he worked there and at the
Leipzig University
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 December ...
. In 1971 he received his doctorate at the University of Berlin with a thesis on ''Hypothesen zu einer kunstwissenschaftlichen Stiltheorie'' (Hypotheses on a theory of style in art studies) and in 1986 he
habilitated on ''Künstlergemeinschaften der deutschen Romantik'' (Artist communities of German Romanticism). From 1974 to 1986 he was also a member of staff at the Institute for Aesthetics and Art Studies at the
Academy of Sciences of the GDR
The German Academy of Sciences at Berlin, german: Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (DAW), in 1972 renamed the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (''Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR (AdW)''), was the most eminent research institution ...
. From 1986 he was director of the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...
of the GDR. During his term of office, which lasted until January 1991, he showed a series of exhibitions on artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, including
Wolfgang Mattheuer
Wolfgang Mattheuer (7 April 1927—7 April 2004) was a German painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Together with Werner Tübke and Bernhard Heisig he was a leading representative of the Leipzig School, a figurative art current in East Germany. ...
,
Wilhelm Lehmbruck
Wilhelm Lehmbruck (4 January 188125 March 1919) was a German sculptor.
Biography
Born in Meiderich (part of Duisburg from 1905), he was the fourth of eight children born to the miner Wilhelm Lehmbruck and his wife Margaretha. He was able to stu ...
,
Werner Tübke
Werner Tübke (30 July 1929 in Schönebeck, Germany – 27 May 2004 in Leipzig, Germany) was a German painter, best known for his monumental '' Peasants' War Panorama'' located in Bad Frankenhausen
Bad Frankenhausen (officially: Bad Frankenhaus ...
, and
Bernhard Heisig
Bernhard Heisig (31 March 1925 – 10 June 2011) was a German painter and graphic artist. Long-time director of the Leipzig Academy (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst; 1961–64, 1976–87) and a leading figure in East Germany's Leipzig School ...
. In addition, he organized exhibitions from the holdings of the National Gallery in Vienna and various locations in the United States. Later Betthausen worked as a freelance art historian in Berlin. In his numerous publications, he devoted himself mainly to the art of the 19th century and the history of art historiography.
Publications
* ''Anton Graff''. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1973.
* ''Arnold Böcklin''. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1975.
* ''Studien zur deutschen Kunst und Architektur um 1800''. publisher Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1981.
* ''Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', Henschelverlag Kunst und Gesellschaft, Berlin 1983.
* ''Schinkelmuseum Friedrichswerdersche Kirche''. together with Brigitte Schmitz and Bernhard Maaz, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Berlin 1989.
* ''Die Präraffaeliten'', Henschel, Berlin 1989, .
* ''Von Caspar David Friedrich bis Adolph Menzel: Aquarelle und Zeichnungen der Romantik aus der Nationalgalerie Berlin/DDR''. together with Gottfried Riemann and Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Prestel, Munich 1990, .
* ''Die Museumsinsel zu Berlin'', Henschel, Berlin 1990, .
* ''Jacob Burckhardt und die Antike''. Published together with Max Kunze, von Zabern, Mainz 1998, .
* ''Wiedergeburt griechischer Götter und Helden, Homer in der Kunst der Goethezeit''. Published together with Max Kunze, von Zabern, Mainz 1999, .
* ''Metzler-Kunsthistoriker-Lexikon, zweihundert Porträts deutschsprachiger Autoren aus vier Jahrhunderten'', together with
Peter H. Feist and Christiane Fork, Metzler, Stuttgart und Weimar 1999, .
* ''H. O. Gehrcke: 1896–1988, ein Malerleben an der Havel''. Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin 1999.
* ''Friedrich Wilhelm IV. von Preussen, Briefe aus Italien 1828'', Herausgeber,
Deutscher Kunstverlag
The Deutscher Kunstverlag (DKV) is an educational publishing house with offices in Berlin and Munich. The publisher specializes in books about art, cultural history, architecture, and historic preservation.
History
Deutscher Kunstverlag was fo ...
, München und Berlin 2001, .
* ''Antike in Wien: die Akademie und der Klassizismus um 1800'', together with Bettina Hagen and Max Kunze, von Zabern, Mainz 2002, .
* ''Augen unterwegs …, Reisebilder, Aquarelle und Zeichnungen von Georg Dehio'', together with Peter H. Feist and Axel Rügler, Rutzen, Ruhpolding 2005, .
* ''Georg Dehio, ein deutscher Kunsthistoriker'', Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2004, .
* ''Ronald Paris – Lob des Realismus'', published together with Ulrike Hager and Peter H. Feist, Faber & Faber, Leipzig 2008, .
* ''Philipp Otto Runge – Briefwechsel'', publisher Seemann, Leipzig 2010, .
* ''Kunst in Preußen – preußische Kunst?''.
''Kunst in Preußen - preußische Kunst?''
on Worldcat Published together with Frank-Lothar Kroll, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2016, .
Literature
* (ed.): ''Die Nationalgalerie''. DuMont, 2001, .
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Betthausen, Peter
German art historians
1941 births
Living people
People from Harzgerode