Reinhold Lepsius (14 June 1857 – 16 March 1922) was a German painter, especially of portraits, and

graphic art A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface.

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 ...

, the son of

Karl Richard Lepsius Karl Richard Lepsius ( la, Carolus Richardius Lepsius) (23 December 181010 July 1884) was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist, linguist and modern archaeologist. He is widely known for his magnum opus ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien'' ...

(1810–1884), professor at the

Frederick William University Friedrich Wilhelm University (German: ''Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität'') may refer to: * Humboldt University of Berlin, called ''Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität'' from 1828 to 1949, and sometimes known in English as Frederick William University * ...

and founder of the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...

, and his wife Elisabeth Klein (1828–1899), daughter of the composer

Bernhard Klein Bernhard Joseph Klein (6 March 1793 – 9 September 1832) was a German composer. Life Klein was born in Cologne. He married Lili Parthey (1800–1829) who was the sister of Gustav Parthey (1798–1872) and the granddaughter of Friedrich Nicolai ...

and great-granddaughter of

Friedrich Nicolai Christoph Friedrich Nicolai (18 March 1733 – 11 January 1811) was a German writer and bookseller. Life Nicolai was born in Berlin, where his father, Christoph Gottlieb Nicolai (d. 1752), was the founder of the bookseller ''Nicolaisch ...

. His younger brother

Johannes Lepsius Johannes Lepsius (15 December 1858, Potsdam, Germany – 3 February 1926, Meran, Italy) was a German Protestant missionary, Orientalist, and humanist with a special interest in trying to prevent the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. He ini ...

became a Protestant theologian, humanist and orientalist. Stefan George by Reinhold Lepsius

Reinhold Lepsius was stylistically affiliated with the

Berlin Secession The Berlin Secession was an art movement established in Germany on May 2, 1898. Formed in reaction to the Association of Berlin Artists, and the restrictions on contemporary art imposed by Kaiser Wilhelm II, 65 artists "seceded," demonstrating ag ...

school and to some degree with German

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 ...

. He was one of the first portraitists to paint after photographs. Lepsius became known for his portraits of the archaeologist

Ernst Curtius Ernst Curtius (; 2 September 181411 July 1896) was a German archaeologist, historian and museum director. Biography He was born in Lübeck. On completing his university studies he was chosen by Christian August Brandis, C. A. Brandis to acco ...

, the philosopher

Wilhelm Dilthey Wilhelm Dilthey (; ; 19 November 1833 – 1 October 1911) was a German historian, psychologist, sociologist, and hermeneutic philosopher, who held G. W. F. Hegel's Chair in Philosophy at the University of Berlin. As a polymathic philosopher, w ...

, and the poet

Stefan George Stefan Anton George (; 12 July 18684 December 1933) was a German symbolist poet and a translator of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Hesiod, and Charles Baudelaire. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential literar ...

who organized literary soirées at his house in Westend. He was elected a member of the

Prussian Academy of Arts The Prussian Academy of Arts (German: ''Preußische Akademie der Künste'') was a state arts academy first established in Berlin, Brandenburg, in 1694/1696 by prince-elector Frederick III, in personal union Duke Frederick I of Prussia, and late ...

in 1916 and also joined the ''

Deutscher Künstlerbund The Deutscher Kuenstlerbund (Association of German Artists) was founded in 1903 the initiative of Count Harry Kessler, promoter of arts and artists, Alfred Lichtwark, director of the Hamburg Art Gallery and the famous painters Lovis Corinth, Ma ...

'' (Association of German Artists). He was married to the painter

Sabine Lepsius Sabine Lepsius (15 January 1864 – 22 November 1942) was a German portrait painter. Life She was born in Berlin as the daughter of portrait painter Gustav Graef and Franziska Liebreich (1824–1893), a lithographer. She studied with her fat ...

, née Graef (1864–1942), sister of the art historian

Botho Graef Franz Botho Graef (12 October 1857, Berlin – 9 April 1917, Königstein im Taunus) was a German classical archaeologist and art historian. His father was painter Gustav Graef, and his sister, Sabine Lepsius, was also an artist of some note. ...

. The couple had a son, Stefan, born in 1897 and named after Stefan George. He was killed in World War I in early April 1917. Lepsius died in Berlin five years later, aged 64. Numerous of his portraits commissioned by

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

clients have come to be regarded as lost after Nazi looting.

Literature

* Annette Dorgerloh: ''Das Künstlerehepaar Lepsius. Zur Berliner Porträtmalerei um 1900'', Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2003 () * Sabine Lepsius: ''Stefan George. Geschichte einer Freundschaft.'' Verlag Die Runde, Berlin 1935. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lepsius, Reinhold 1857 births 1922 deaths 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists Artists from Berlin 20th-century German printmakers