
Emil Zeiß (2 July 1833 – 14 April 1910) was a German
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
minister and painter. His body of work includes 33 sketchbooks and 1092 identified individual works, largely donated by his son to the
Lippe Museum
Lippe () is a ''Kreis'' (Districts of Germany, district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford (district), Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Höxter (district), Höxter, Paderborn (district), Paderborn, Güters ...
.
Life
Zeiß was born in the village of Stapelage in
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhab ...
. He attended the
University of Marburg
The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the worl ...
. On 30 November 1859 he was admitted as a candidate for ministry in the
Reformed church
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
after passing the first
theological
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...
examination. Three years later, on 12 November 1862 he passed the second theological examination. He was called to be a pastor for the
Church of Lippe
The Church of Lippe (german: link=no, Lippische Landeskirche) is a Reformed (Calvinist) member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany that covers what used to be the Principality of Lippe.
Seat of the church administration is Detmold. The p ...
in
Barntrup and stayed there for two decades.
In 1904 he suffered a stroke and a year later he retired. He died in 1910 in
Schwalenberg, where his son, Alexander Zeiß held a pastorate from 1885 to 1938.
[Burkhard Meier, Vera Scheef und Heinrich Stiewe: ''Emil Zeiß 1833–1910: Ein Lippischer Pfarrer und Künstler''. Herausgegeben vom Lippischen Heimatbund und vom Landesverband Lippe, Verlag topp + möller, Detmold 2001, ]
Work
Zeiß worked mainly in
watercolors
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...
and pencil, but there are some
oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...
s. His main subjects are
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
, town views and landscapes from 1860-1880. Although he occasionally weiterschenkte images to friends and relatives, he was in his lifetime, not to persuade, to participate in exhibitions, although there were requests to. He was also friends with the painter
Carl Gehrts (1853-1898). Today, Zeiß's many paintings of towns and villages in the
Lippe
Lippe () is a ''Kreis'' ( district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Höxter, Paderborn, Gütersloh, and district-free Bielefeld, which forms the region Ostwestfalen-Lippe ...
area are important sources of local and regional history, showing the towns and villages before the advent of industrialization.
References
External links
Literature about Emil Zeiß in the Catalog of the
German National Library
The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeiss, Emil
1833 births
1910 deaths
German Protestant clergy
19th-century German painters
19th-century German male artists
German male painters
20th-century German painters
20th-century German male artists
People from Lippe
University of Marburg alumni
Artists from North Rhine-Westphalia