Walter Rudolf Leistikow (1865–1908) was a German landscape painter, graphic artist, designer and art critic.
Biography
His father was a pharmacist who owned a
Kräuterlikör
Kräuterlikör (herbal liqueur or spiced liqueur, also called "half-bitters") is a type of liqueur that is flavored with herbs or spices and traditionally drunk neat as a digestif, very close to the concept of an italian '' amaro''.
The history ...
manufacturing plant in
Kujawien that provided much of the family's income. In 1883, aged seventeen, he moved to Berlin to attend the
Prussian Academy of Art, but after barely one year, he was dismissed by
Anton von Werner for lack of talent. He then took private lessons from
Hermann Eschke
Hermann Wilhelm Benjamin Eschke (6 May 1823 - 15 January 1900) was a German painter who specialized in marine art.
Biography
Eschke was born in Berlin. In 1840, at the age of seventeen, he began his studies with Professor Wilhelm Herbig and, ...
and
Hans Gude
Hans Fredrik Gude (March 13, 1825August 17, 1903) was a Norwegian romanticist painter and is considered along with Johan Christian Dahl to be one of Norway's foremost landscape painters. He has been called a mainstay of Norwegian National Roma ...
from 1885 to 1887.
Leistikow's first exhibition was at the Berliner Salon in 1886 and, in 1892 he became a member of an artists' association known as Die-XI ''()'', which was opposed to the teaching methods at the Academy. From 1892 to 1895, he taught at the private academy, Akademie Fehr, run by artist
Conrad Fehr and located on Lützowstrasse 82 in Berlin. He also designed furniture, carpets and wallpapers. In 1902, he was chosen to create
trading cards for the
Stollwerck
Stollwerck GmbH is a German chocolate manufacturer. It was founded in 1839 and expanded internationally in Europe and America, becoming the second largest producer of chocolate in the United States by 1900. Since 2011 it has belonged to Belg ...
chocolate company of Cologne and produced a series of German landscapes.
For a time, Leistikow tried to become a writer, publishing a
novella called ''Seine Cousine'' (1893) in the ''
Freie Bühne'' and a novel, ''Auf der Schwelle'' (1896), but they received little attention. To make matters worse, Kaiser
Wilhelm II
, house = Hohenzollern
, father = Frederick III, German Emperor
, mother = Victoria, Princess Royal
, religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United)
, signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...
despised his pictures and was quoted as saying "er hat mir den ganzen Grunewald versaut" (he has ruined the entire
Grunewald Grunewald is the name of both a locality and a forest in Germany:
* Grunewald (forest)
* Grunewald (locality)
Grünewald may refer to:
* Grünewald (surname)
* Grünewald, Germany, a municipality in Brandenburg, Germany
* Grünewald (Luxembourg), ...
for me).
In 1894, he married Anna Mohr (1863–1950), a merchant's daughter from Copenhagen. In 1903, he was one of the co-founders of 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 ...
.
By 1908, Leistikow was dying from the agonizing effects of advanced-stage
syphilis. He committed suicide by shooting himself while staying at the Sanatorium Hubertus on the
Schlachtensee
Schlachtensee () is a lake in the south west of Berlin, in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough (in the quarters of Schlachtensee), on the edge of the Grunewald forest. The lake lends its name to the surrounding area and to the nearby ''Studentend ...
. Shortly after, a street in Berlin's
Westend district was named after him.
Leistikowstrasse in ''Kauperts Straßenführer durch Berlin''
/ref> In 1920, a street in the Mahlsdorf
Mahlsdorf () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') within the Berlin borough (''Bezirk'') of Marzahn-Hellersdorf. Until 2001 it was part of the former borough of Hellersdorf.
History
The locality was mentioned for the first time in a document of 1345, ...
district was named after him as well. He was later given an ehrengrab at the cemetery in Steglitz. A commemorative stamp was issued in 1972, with one of his paintings of the Schlachtensee.
Selected paintings
File:Walter Leistikow Aus dem Grunewald.jpg, ''In the Grunewald''
File:Walter Leistikow - Liebesinsel (1905).jpg, ''Liebesinsel, Havel''
File:Walter Leistikow - Abendstimmung am Schlachtensee (1895) 2.jpg, ''Evening Mood on the Schlachtensee''
File:Leistikow3.jpg, ''House in Denmark''
References
*
Further reading
* Ernst Schur: ''Walter Leistikow''. In: ''Berliner Architekturwelt'', 11. Jahrgang
Nr. 6 (September 1908), pgs.213–215
* Lovis Corinth
Lovis Corinth (21 July 1858 – 17 July 1925) was a German artist and writer whose mature work as a painter and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism.
Corinth studied in Paris and Munich, joined the Berlin Sec ...
:
Das Leben Walter Leistikows. Ein Stück Berliner Kulturgeschichte
'. Paul Cassirer, Berlin 1910
* Margrit Bröhan: ''Walter Leistikow – Landschaftsbilder''. Ars Nicolai, Berlin 1994
* Markus Nass: ''Walter Leistikow. Das druckgraphische Werk''. Galerie Gerda Bassenge, Berlin 1999,
* Ingeborg Becker (Ed.): ''Stimmungslandschaften. Gemälde von Walter Leistikow''. Exhibition catalog, 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 ...
, Berlin/München 2008,
External links
ArtNet: More works by Leistikow.
*
*
mi
Bildliste
(PDF; 448 kB) seit 19. Oktober 2012 im Bröhan-Museum, Berlin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leistikow, Walter
1865 births
1908 deaths
Artists from Bydgoszcz
19th-century German painters
19th-century German male artists
German male painters
20th-century German painters
20th-century German male artists
People from the Province of Posen
German landscape painters
Artists who committed suicide
1908 suicides