Wilhelm Von Kügelgen
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Wilhelm Von Kügelgen
OR:
Wilhelm Von Kügelgen on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Wilhelm Georg Alexander von Kügelgen (20 November 1802, in St.Petersburg – 25 May 1867, in
Ballenstedt Ballenstedt is a town in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Geography It is situated at the northern rim of the Harz mountain range, about 10 km (6 mi) southeast of Quedlinburg. The municipal area comprises the vi ...
) was a German portrait and history painter, writer, and chamberlain at the Court of
Anhalt-Bernburg Anhalt-Bernburg was a Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, principality of the Holy Roman Empire and a duchy of the German Confederation ruled by the House of Ascania with its residence at Bernburg in present-day Saxony-Anhalt. It emerged as a subd ...
. He is best known for his posthumously published memoirs, which have gone through many editions from seventeen different publishers.


Life

He was the son of portrait and history painter
Gerhard von Kügelgen Franz Gerhard von Kügelgen (6 February 1772 – 27 March 1820) was a German painter, noted for his portraits and history paintings. He was a professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and a member of both the Prussian and Russian Imperial ...
. The home where he grew up in Dresden is now the . He attended the Gymnasium in
Bernburg (Saale) Bernburg (Saale) () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the Salzlandkreis district. The former residence of the Anhalt-Bernburg princes is known for its Renaissance architecture, Renaissance castle. Geography The town centre is situa ...
and studied at the
Dresden Academy of Fine Arts The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German language, German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institutio ...
. When he was eighteen, his father was murdered during a robbery, creating an emotional crisis that challenged his religious beliefs. From 1825 to 1826, he lived in Rome, where he became friends with fellow painter
Ludwig Richter Adrian Ludwig Richter (September 28, 1803June 19, 1884) was a German painter and etcher, who was strongly influenced by Erhard and Daniel Chodowiecki, Chodowiecki. He was a representative of both Romanticism and Biedermeier styles. He was th ...
. It was at this time that he began to suffer from progressive
colorblindness Color blindness, color vision deficiency (CVD) or color deficiency is the decreased ability to see color or differences in color. The severity of color blindness ranges from mostly unnoticeable to full absence of color perception. Color bl ...
. In 1827, he married Julie Krummacher (1804-1909), daughter of
Friedrich Adolf Krummacher Friedrich Adolf Krummacher (July 13, 1767 – April 14, 1845) was a German Reformed theologian and a writer of devotional poetry and prose. Biography He was born in Tecklenburg, Westphalia. Having studied theology at Lingen and Halle, he became ...
, the evangelical
theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...
.''Genealogisches Handbuch der baltischen Ritterschaften, Teil 2,1,: Estland, Bd.:1'', Görlitz, 1930
s.627
/ref> They had six children. In 1833, he became the Court Painter at the Anhalt-Bernburg summer residence in Ballenstedt and remained there the rest of his life. From 1853 to 1863, he served as personal chamberlain to Duke Alexander Karl, who was suffering from a severe mental illness. During these years, he increasingly turned from painting to writing. In 1870, his memoirs were published by Philipp von Nathusius. They were given the title ''Jugenderinnerungen eines alten Mannes'' (Childhood Memories of an Old Man). These stories from his youth quickly became popular reading for the German middle-class. Their 230th edition appeared in 1922. An English translation was made under the title ''Bygone Days: Or, an Old Man's Reminiscences of His Youth''. Several editions in German and English are available as reprints. Since 1993, the Kunstkreis Sachsen-Anhalt in Bernburg has awarded an annual "Wilhelm von Kügelgen Scholarship" to art students.


References


Further reading

* G. Reich: ''Wilhelm von Kügelgen als religiöse Persönlichkeit und theologischer Denker'', in: ', 4 (1952) * Hans Schöner: ''Wilhelm von Kügelgen. Sein Leben und seine Bilder''. Self-published, Mönkeberg 1992 * * Volker Ebersbach: ''Köstliche Perlen finden sich reichlich - ein Kügelgen-Brevier.'' Janos Stekovics, Halle/Saale 2002,


External links

*
''Jugenderinnerung eines alten Mannes''
(digitalized at
Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
, in German)
Kügelgen-Kulturverein Ballenstedt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kugelgen, Wilhelm von German expatriates in the Russian Empire Painters from Dresden 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters 1802 births 1867 deaths