Merseburg
Town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Merseburg () is a town in central Germany in southern Saxony-Anhalt, situated on the river Saale, and approximately 14 km south of Halle (Saale) and 30 km west of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Saalekreis district. It had a diocese founded by Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg.
The University of Merseburg is located within the town. Merseburg has around 35,000 inhabitants.
Geography.
The town Merseburg consists of Merseburg proper and the following four "Ortschaften" or municipal divisions:
Administrative reforms.
Venenien was incorporated into Merseburg on 1 January 1949. The parish Kötzschen followed on 1 July 1950. Since 30 May 1994, Meuschau is part of Merseburg. Trebnitz, previously part of Kreypau, followed in 2003. Beuna was annexed on 1 January 2009. Geusa is a part of Merseburg since 1 January 2010.
History.
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Historical affiliations
 Bishopric of Merseburg 1004-1565

 Electorate of Saxony 1565-1657

 Duchy of Saxe-Merseburg 1657-1738

 Poland-Saxony 1738-1763

 Electorate of Saxony 1763-1806

 Kingdom of Saxony 1806-1815

 Kingdom of Prussia 1815-1871

 German Empire 1871-1918

 Weimar Republic 1918-1933

 Nazi Germany 1933-1945

 Allied-occupied Germany 1945-1949

 East Germany 1949-1990

 1990-present
Pre-history and Middle Ages.
Merseburg was first mentioned in 850. King Henry the Fowler built a royal palace at Merseburg; in the 933 Battle of Riade, he gained his great victory over the Hungarians in the vicinity.
Thietmar, appointed in 973, became the first bishop of the newly created bishopric of Prague in Bohemia. Prague had been part of the archbishopric of Mainz for a hundred years before that. From 968 until the Protestant Reformation, Merseburg was the seat of the Bishop of Merseburg, and in addition to being for a time the residence of the margraves of Meissen, it was a favorite residence of the German kings during the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries. Fifteen diets were held here during the Middle Ages, during which time its fairs enjoyed the importance which was afterwards transferred to those of Leipzig. After Ekkehard's treacherous death on 3 April 1002, Bolesław I Chrobry took Merseburg and Meissen, and then Milsko with Bautzen and Strehla, with the help of the local Slavic population. The German princes accepted the sovereignty of the Polish prince in these areas. Some historians believe that since the convention in Gniezno, the Brave might have had certain rights to the German throne after Otto III, guaranteed by some succession document. Merseburg was later the site of a failed assassination attempt on Polish ruler Bolesław I Chrobry in 1002. The town suffered severely during the German Peasants' War and also during the Thirty Years' War.
17th century to 20th century.
From 1657 to 1738 Merseburg was the residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Merseburg, after which it fell to the Electorate of Saxony. In 1815 following the Napoleonic Wars, the town became part of the Prussian Province of Saxony.
Merseburg is where the Merseburg Incantations were rediscovered in 1841. Written down in Old High German, they are hitherto the only preserved German documents with a heathen theme. One of them is a charm to release warriors caught during battle, and the other is a charm to heal a horse's sprained foot.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Merseburg was transformed into an industrial town, largely due to the pioneering work done by Carl Bosch and Friedrich Bergius, who laid down the scientific fundamentals of the catalytic high-pressure ammonia synthesis from 1909 to 1913. The nearby Leuna works continue this tradition of chemical industry. The "Merseburger Tageblatt" was published as a local newspaper in Merseburg.
Merseburg was badly damaged in World War II. In 23 air raids, 6,200 dwellings were completely or partly destroyed. The historic town centre was almost completely destroyed.
Briefly part of Saxony-Anhalt after the war, it was then administered within the "Bezirk" Halle in East Germany. It became part of Saxony-Anhalt again after the reunification of Germany.
Demographics.
Like many towns in the former East Germany, Merseburg has had a general decline in population since German Reunification despite annexing and merging with a number of smaller nearby villages.
Population of Merseburg "(from 1960, population on 31 December, unless otherwise indicated)":
Sights.
Among the notable buildings of Merseburg are the Merseburg Cathedral of St John the Baptist (founded 1015, rebuilt in the 13th and 16th centuries) and the episcopal palace (15th century). The cathedral-and-palace ensemble also features a palace garden.
Other sights include the Merseburg House of Trades with a cultural stage and the German Museum of Chemistry, Merseburg.
Arts and culture.
The Merseburg Palace Festival with the Historical Pageant, the International Palace-Moat Concerts, Merseburg Organ Days and the Puppet Show Festival Week are events celebrated every year.
Transport.
Merseburg station is located on the Halle–Bebra railway. Leipzig/Halle Airport is 25 kilometers away.
Merseburg is connected with the Halle (Saale) tramway network. A tram ride from Halle's city centre to Merseburg takes about 50 minutes.
Twin towns – sister cities.
Merseburg is twinned with:
References.
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Ludwig Friedrich Otto Baumgarten-Crusius
Ludwig Friedrich Otto Baumgarten-Crusius (31 July 1788 – 31 May 1843) was a German Protestant theologian and divine born in Merseburg. He was the brother of philologist Detlev Karl Wilhelm Baumgarten-Crusius (1786-1845).
Life.
In 1805 he entered the University of Leipzig, where he studied theology and philology, becoming a university minister in 1810. In 1812 he became an associate professor of theology at the University of Jena, where in 1817, he attained a full professorship. He would remain at Jena for the rest of his life.
He was considered a champion of religious liberty, a theme that was expressed throughout his various writings. Early in his career, he was influenced by the metaphysics of Schelling, a belief system that he ultimately abandoned as his career progressed.
With the exception of church history, he lectured on all branches of so-called theoretical theology, especially on New Testament exegesis, Biblical theology, dogmatic ethics, and the history of dogma. His comprehensive knowledge, accurate scholarship and wide sympathies gave unusual value to his lectures and treatises, especially those on the development of church doctrine.
Literary works.
His published works are many, the most important being:
References.
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Detlev Karl Wilhelm Baumgarten-Crusius
German educator and philologist
Detlev Karl Wilhelm Baumgarten-Crusius (24 January 1786, Dresden – 5 May 1845, Meissen) was a German educator and philologist. He was the older brother of theologian Ludwig Friedrich Otto Baumgarten-Crusius (1788-1842).
From 1810, he served as a vice-principal in Merseburg, afterwards performing similar duties in Dresden (from 1817). In 1833 he was appointed rector at the "Landesschule" in Meissen, where he worked for the remainder of his career.
Baumgarten-Crusius is known for his work in the field of classical philology, in particular, editions of the Roman historian Suetonius. In 1822-24, he published an edition of Homer's Odyssey.
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Alfred Baumgarten
Baron Alfred Moritz Friedrich Baumgarten (13 November 1842 – 3 October 1919) was the co-founder and president of the St. Lawrence Sugar Refinery at Montreal, and a life governor of the Montreal General Hospital and Master of Foxhounds for the Montreal Hunt. His house in Montreal's Golden Square Mile is today home to the McGill University Faculty Club.
Family and education.
Alfred Moritz Friedrich Baumgarten was born on 13 November 1842 in Dresden, the son of Dr Moritz Friedrich Oswald Baumgarten, court physician to John, king of Saxony, and Emmy Zocher, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Carola of Saxony.
Baumgarten attended Dresden High School and Dresden Polytechnic School (where he graduated as a chemist), before studying chemistry at the University of Berlin and the University of Göttingen, during which time he received two years' practical experience at the chemical plant at Schöningen. In 1864, he was awarded a doctor of philosophy degree.
Career.
Baumgarten began his career as the manager of a sugar beet house at Hamersleben, remaining there until 1866, when he emigrated to the United States.
New York.
Baumgarten came to New York with the intention of entering the North American chemical industry. He became an assistant in the laboratory of the chemist Charles F. Chandler of the New York School of Mines.
Whilst at the School of Mines, Baumgarten formed a business partnership with C.W. Walter, establishing with him the Laurel Hill Chemical Works, under the name of Walter & Baumgarten. The company later became the Nicholson Company, the largest acid manufacturing works in North America. Baumgarten then moved from the company, when he obtained a management post at the Long Island Sugar refinery.
Montreal.
In 1873, Baumgarten came to Montreal, where he worked as manager of the de Castro Syrup Company. In 1879, he co-founded the St. Lawrence Sugar Refining Company, becoming the company's vice-president and, in 1894, its president.
Baumgarten's training as a chemical engineer enabled him to develop the process of refining sugar beet. The company imported raw sugar from the British West Indies and Europe before refining it into a pure substance. The plant was enlarged several times to accommodate the growth in demand. When the original buildings were destroyed by fire in 1887, a new factory was built at Maisonneuve on a riverside site that allowed the largest ships to unload their cargo near to the factory doors.
By 1908, the company was worth CA$ (1908) and was exporting 300,000 barrels a year. Baumgarten became a wealthy man as a result of his stakes in the company.
In 1911, Baumgarten was appointed as a director of the Bank of Montreal. He was also a director of C. Meredith & Company; vice-president of the Montreal Archaeological Institute, and published several essays on chemistry. He retired in 1912 and was succeeded as president of the St. Lawrence Refinery by John Wilson McConnell, though he remained the principal shareholder and was given the position of honorary president.
Forced resignation from the St. Lawrence Sugar Refining Company.
Prior to the First World War, anti-German sentiment spread through the British Empire, reaching a peak after the outbreak of war in 1914. The St. Lawrence Sugar Refinery was targeted in the local press for allegedly still being "in the hands of enemy Germans". By 1915, McConnell was forced to hold a shareholders' meeting to discuss "the serious menace to the welfare of our business caused by hostile publications in the press against certain persons connected with our company". The company decided that every officeholder with a German-sounding name had to resign his post, and most did. As well as being made to sell his shares, Baumgarten and his brother-in-law, the vice-president and managing director, Otto Wilhelm Donner, all resigned their positions.
These events, as well as the way several of his pre-war associates shunned him as soon as war was declared against Germany, distressed Baumgarten greatly. Some of his close friends stood by him, frustrated by how he had been treated.
During the war, Baumgarten contributed generously towards the Canadian Patriotic Fund, and he offered to let his Montreal town house become a convalescent home for disabled soldiers. However, aspersions were cast that he was a sympathiser and, stories were told that the house was used by the spy Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Family and private life.
In 1885, Baumgarten married Martha Christina Donner, the daughter of John Donner of Altona, Hamburg. The marriage produced two daughters, Mimi Donner Baumgarten (b. 1888), and Elsa Baumgarten (b. 1900). In 1895, he purchased a large house at Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, which eventually had stables and galleries and dominated the hillside overlooking the lake.
Baumgarten was a life governor of the Montreal General Hospital, the Montreal Western Hospital and the Alexandra Hospital. He enjoyed a prominent place in Montreal's social world. After he retired from public life he spent the greater part of his time at his country house. He died on 3 October 1919, having been in poor health during the last five years of his life. He was buried in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal.
Baumgarten died a wealthy man. In his will, executed in 1919, he left donations to the three hospitals where he had been a governor, and a substantial annual sum for his family, which allowed them to retain the family country house, even after Martha Baumgarten's death in 1953.
Baumgarten House.
In 1880, Baumgarten purchased land on McTavish Street, now located within Montreal's Golden Square Mile for a new mansion, Baumgarten House, which was completed in 1887.
The house had a modest exterior, but the interior was sumptuously decorated and boasted a 'sunken bathtub' (an indoor swimming pool), the first in the city. It was also the first private residence to be fitted with electrical lighting. In 1902 he made further extensions to his home.
The ceiling of the ballroom, from which hung several chandeliers, was supported by marble columns and a minstrels' gallery was suspended from the ceiling with brass cords. The ballroom floor was built on springs to help boost the dancers' feet. Baumgarten personally designed and built the spring floor, which was transplanted to his home from the Montreal Hunt clubhouse when the Hunt relocated.
The Gothic Gallery, which spanned two stories of the house, was designed to resemble a German hunting lodge and was covered by an immense, amber-coloured stained glass skylight. In the early 1900s his home was the favourite Montreal place for Governor-General the Earl of Minto.
After Baumgarten's death in 1919, the house continued to be lived in by his widow and their two daughters. In 1926, McGill University purchased the house for a nominal sum to serve as a residence for the principal of McGill. General Sir Arthur Currie occupied the house until 1935, but it was felt by his successor that the house was too grand for his needs and from 1935 the house was renovated to become the McGill Faculty Club. At this time, the Gothic Gallery was split into two separate floors, the lower of which is now the main dining room, and the upper of which serves as the billiard room.
Montreal Hunt.
Baumgarten was an ardent sportsman and had a passion for horses. From 1882 to 1887, he was the Master of Foxhounds for the Montreal Hunt, rejuvenating the club after the departure of British troops from Canada in 1870. He introduced dinners and dancing after the meet.
In 1881, Baumgarten bought some land on the corner of what is today Mount Royal Avenue and Delormier Avenue.He commissioned the building of new kennels and a clubhouse, that included a banquet room, a billiards room, a ballroom, a swimming pool and a library. The front of the clubhouse featured a long gallery, where the meet could be viewed. The interior was decorated in light oak with burnished brass. The fireplace in the entrance hall was decorated with Dutch tiles depicting hunting scenes. The swimming pool was described as "an oriental plunge bathroom all inlaid with white tiles".
Notes.
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References.
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Otto Crusius (1857–1918)
German classical scholar
Otto Crusius (20 December 1857 – 29 December 1918) was a German classical scholar. He was born in Hanover and died in Munich.
In his youth he was a student of Franz Ahrens at the Lyceum in Hanover, afterwards studying classical philology at the University of Leipzig (1875–79). At Leipzig his influences included Otto Ribbeck and Rudolf Hildebrand. He earned his habilitation in 1883 and three years later was a professor at the University of Tübingen, succeeding Erwin Rohde. Later on, he worked as a professor at the University of Heidelberg (from 1898) and at Munich (from 1903). In 1915 he became president of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences as well as general curator of the Bavarian State collections.
His works include: ""Beiträge zur griechischen Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte" (1886), "Untersuchungen zu den Mimiamben des Herondas"" (1892), etc. He published editions of the poet Herondas, the fables of Babrius, "Anthologia lyrica Graeca" (1897 ff) and was an editor of the journal "Philologus". After 1909 he published, with others, several volumes of "Das Erbe der Alten. Schriften Über Wesen und Wirkung Der Antike".
References.
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Hans Heinrich Baumgarten
Danish industrialist
Hans Heinrich Baumgarten (29 May 1806 – 3 March 1875) was a Holstein-Danish industrialist. In 1843, he founded a company which from 1846 became known as Baumgarten & Burmeister and after his retirement became Burmeister & Wain.
Early life and career.
Baumgarten was born on 29 May 1806 in Halstenbeck, Holstein, the son of Hufner Franz Heinrich Joachim B. (1757–1826) and Anna Marie Köncke (1763–1820). He started as a farm worker in his home town but later apprenticed as a koiner in Hamburg. He moved to Copenhagen in 1829 where he was introduced to mechanics in Frederik Schiøtt's machine workshop. Baumgarten went abroad When Schiøtt's firm was dissolved in 1832. He first managed an iron foundry in Lübeck for a few years and then continued to Berlin where he first worked for three years as a mechanic in Vossische Zeitung's printer business and then for about a year as foreman Freund's machine factory. In 1865, Burmeister made William Wain a partner in the company.
In 1839, Baumgarten return to Copenhagen. He initially worked for a short time as engineer in Berling's printer and then for a few years managed P. F. Lunde's machine workshop.
Baumgarten & Burmeister.
On 18 February 1843,Baumgarten was granted a royal license to establish his own machine workshop. His first workshop was located at the second floor in a rear wing at Købmagergade 46. It later moved to the so-called Wismer House on Gammel Mønt.
In October 1846, Baumgarten and C. C. Burmeister merged their ventures Baumgarten & Burmeister after being encouraged to do so by Hans Christian Ørsted. The company was based in the former beer garden "Kierulffs Have" at Overgaden neden Vandet in Christianshavn. Baumgarten retired from the company in 1862. It had by then grown to 450 workers and had produced a total of 134 steam engines.
Baumgarten was a board member of Industriforeningen in 1846–60.
Personal life.
Baumgarten married Frederikke Margrethe Andersen (17 June 1810 - 18 March 1896), a daughter of Thue Andersen and Anne Marie Svendsen, on 29 October 1830. They had two children, Ludwig Ferdinand Baumgarten and Emma Vilhelmine Wendt. Their son died as an infant.
In 1863, Baumgarten was created a Knight in the Order of the Dannebrog. He spent his last years on his property in Lyngby where he constructed a machine for the perforation of sheets of stamps. He died on 3 March 1875 and is buried in Assistens Cemetery in Copenhagen.
References.
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Hermann Baumgarten
German historian and political publicist
Hermann Baumgarten (; ; 28 April 1825 – 19 June 1893) was a German historian and political publicist whose work had a major impact on liberalism during the unification of Germany. Baumgarten's philosophy also created a significant political impression on Max Weber, an influential social theorist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Life and career.
Hermann Baumgarten was born in Wolfenbüttel in the Duchy of Brunswick. He studied philology and history at the University of Jena before becoming a journalist in 1855. In 1859 he began working at Maximilian Duncker's "literary bureau", a Prussian institution used to disseminate propaganda. In 1861, he also took up a teaching post at the Technical University of Karlsruhe.
As a champion of Prussian/German liberalism, Baumgarten faced the dilemma as to whether or not to accept the military and political successes of Prussia's conservative Prime Minister, Otto von Bismarck. In 1866, Baumgarten published his support of Bismarck's policies in an essay entitled "A Self-Criticism of German Liberalism". This work essentially ended radical German liberalism as a force, whereupon many Prussians joined the Bismarck-supporting National Liberal Party), and allowed the new German empire to nationalize and solidify.
In 1872, Baumgarten became Professor of History at the Reichsuniversität in Strasbourg. During the late 1880s and early 1890s, Baumgarten made a significant political impression upon Max Weber, Baumgarten's nephew by marriage. Weber would go on to profoundly influence social theory and the remit of sociology itself. At the age of 68, Baumgarten died in Strasbourg, Alsace–Lorraine.
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Ludwig Otto
German painter
Louis Eugen Friedrich Otto (21 July 1850 — 15 May 1920), known as Ludwig Otto, was a German landscape and court painter, etcher, and lithographer.
Born at Borna, near Leipzig, in the Kingdom of Saxony, in 1865 he was admitted as a student to the Academy Leipzig and from 1868 to 1870 continued his education at the Dresden Academy under Franz Theodor Grosse, before studying etching with Karl Köpping in Berlin. In 1871 the German Empire was created, giving Otto a new and wider-reaching citizenship. He spent some fifteen years in Italy, Greece, and England, documenting the finds of archaeological expeditions, and gaining international recognition as a scientific illustrator and landscape painter; he also worked as a court painter to the Saxon royal family.
Otto married Marie Rüdiger, daughter of a pastor of Großdrebnitz, a village he regularly visited to paint. One of his paintings survives there in the Martinskirche.
In May to October 1906, Otto’s work was exhibited at the "Sächsische Kunstausstellung", a major exhibition in Dresden on the Brühlesche Terrasse.
He was appointed a professor and also designed stained glass windows and other interior features for churches.
Otto died in 1920 in Dresden, by then in the Weimar Republic.
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Charles Frederick Baumgarten
German-born violinist, organist, composer and teacher
Charles Frederick Baumgarten (originally Karl Friedrich Baumgarten; 1739/1740 – 1824) was a German-born violinist, organist, composer and teacher, living in London.
Life.
Baumgarten was born in Lübeck, and was a pupil of the organist Johann Paul Kunzen. In 1757 he moved to England.
There are few details of his early career. By 1760 he was organist of the Lutheran chapel at the Savoy. In 1763 he was leader of the orchestra of the Haymarket Theatre in London; in 1764 he was at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin.
He was leader of the Duke of Cumberland's private band, whose other members included William Shield and William Thomas Parke. From 1780 until 1794 he was leader of the orchestra of Covent Garden Theatre in London. Joseph Haydn met him in 1792; by this time he had almost forgotten his mother tongue. Haydn wrote in his diary that Baumgarten led "a sleepy orchestra". However he and Adalbert Gyrowetz, who was in London at the same time, acknowledged his theoretical knowledge.
His many pupils included William Dance, Thomas Welsh and William Thomas Parke.
Baumgarten died in London in 1824, aged 84. Carl Ferdinand Pohl wrote "he does not seem to have possessed the art of making use of his advantages, and was quickly forgotten."
Compositions.
Baumgarten's compositions include keyboard works, an oboe concerto, and six quartets for various instruments.
He also wrote some material for the theatre, including the music for Carlo Antonio Delpini's "Blue Beard" (1791), the overture for "Harlequin, Junior" (Covent Garden 1784) and some of the music for "Netley Abbey" (Covent Garden 1794).
References.
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Ludwig II of Bavaria
King of Bavaria from 1864 to 1886
Ludwig II (Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm; 25 August 1845 – 13 June 1886), also called the Swan King or the Fairy Tale King (), was King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886. He also held the titles of Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, Duke of Franconia, and Duke in Swabia. Outside Germany, he is at times called "the Mad King" or Mad King Ludwig.
Ludwig ascended to the throne in 1864 at the age of 18 but increasingly withdrew from day-to-day affairs of state in favour of extravagant artistic and architectural projects. He commissioned the construction of lavish palaces: Neuschwanstein Castle, Linderhof Palace, and Herrenchiemsee. He was also a devoted patron of the composer Richard Wagner. Ludwig spent all his own private royal revenues (although not state funds as is commonly thought) on these projects, borrowed extensively, and defied all attempts by his ministers to restrain him. This extravagance was used against him to declare him insane, an accusation that has since come under scrutiny.
Ludwig was taken into custody and effectively deposed on 12 June 1886, and he and his doctor were found dead on the following day. His death was ruled to be a suicide, a decision that has since been disputed. Today, his architectural and artistic legacy includes many of Bavaria's most important tourist attractions.
Early life.
Born at Nymphenburg Palace, which is located in what is today part of central Munich, he was the elder son of Maximilian II of Bavaria and Marie of Prussia, Crown Prince and Princess of Bavaria, who became King and Queen in 1848 after the abdication of the former's father, Ludwig I, during the German revolution of 1848–1849. His parents intended to name him Otto, but his grandfather insisted that his grandson be named after him, since their common birthday, 25 August, is the feast day of Saint Louis IX of France, patron saint of Bavaria (with "Ludwig" being the German form of "Louis").
Like many young heirs in an age when kings governed most of Europe, Ludwig was continually reminded of his royal status. King Maximilian II wanted to instruct both of his sons in the burdens of royal duty from an early age. Ludwig was both extremely indulged and severely controlled by his tutors and subjected to a strict regimen of study and exercise. Some point to the stresses of growing up in a royal family as cause for much of his odd behaviour as an adult.
Ludwig was not close to either of his parents. King Maximilian's advisers had suggested that on his daily walks he might like, at times, to be accompanied by his future successor. The King replied, "But what am I to say to him? After all, my son takes no interest in what other people tell him." Later, Ludwig would refer to his mother as "my predecessor's consort". He was far closer to his grandfather, the deposed and notorious King Ludwig I.
Ludwig's childhood years did have happy moments. He lived for much of the time at Hohenschwangau Castle, a fantasy castle his father had built near the (Alp Lake) near Füssen. It was decorated in the Gothic Revival style with many frescoes depicting heroic German sagas, most notably images of Lohengrin, the Knight of the Swans. The family also visited Lake Starnberg (then called Lake Würm).
As an adolescent, Ludwig began a relationship with his aide de camp, Prince Paul, a member of the wealthy Bavarian Thurn und Taxis family. The two young men rode together, read poetry aloud, and staged scenes from the Romantic operas of Richard Wagner. The friendship ended when Paul became engaged to a commoner in 1868. During his youth, Ludwig also initiated a lifelong friendship with his similarly-eccentric cousin Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria, later Empress of Austria.
Early reign.
Crown Prince Ludwig was in his 19th year when his father died after a three-day illness, and he ascended the Bavarian throne. Although he was not prepared for high office, his youth and brooding good looks made him popular in Bavaria and elsewhere. He continued the state policies of his father and retained his ministers. His real interests were in art, music, and architecture. One of the first acts of his reign, a few months after his accession, was to summon the composer Richard Wagner to his court. Also in 1864, he laid the foundation stone of a new Court Theatre, now the ("Gärtnerplatz"-Theater).
Ludwig was notably eccentric in ways that made serving as Bavaria's head of state problematic. He disliked large public functions and avoided formal social events whenever possible, preferring a life of seclusion that he pursued with various creative projects. He last inspected a military parade on 22 August 1875 and last gave a court banquet on 10 February 1876. His mother had foreseen difficulties for Ludwig when she recorded her concern for her extremely introverted and creative son who spent much time day-dreaming. These idiosyncrasies, combined with the fact that Ludwig avoided Munich and participating in the government there at all costs, caused considerable tension with the king's government ministers but did not cost him popularity among the citizens of Bavaria.
The king enjoyed traveling in the Bavarian countryside and chatting with farmers and labourers he met along the way. He also delighted in rewarding those who were hospitable to him during his travels with lavish gifts. He is still remembered in Bavaria as ("Our Cherished King" in the Bavarian dialect).
Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars.
Unification with Prussia took center stage from 1866. In the Austro-Prussian War, which began in August, Ludwig's government supported the Austrian Empire against Prussia. Austria and Bavaria were defeated, and the Kingdom of Bavaria was forced to sign a mutual defence treaty with Prussia. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, Bavaria was required to fight alongside Prussia. After the Prussian victory over the Second French Empire, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck moved to complete the unification of Germany.
In November 1870, Bavaria joined the North German Confederation, thus losing its status as an independent kingdom; however, the Bavarian delegation under Minister President, Count Otto von Bray-Steinburg, secured privileged status for Bavaria within the empire (). Bavaria retained its own diplomatic corps and the Bavarian Army, which would come under Prussian command only in times of war.
In December 1870, Bismarck used financial concessions to induce Ludwig, with the support of the king's equerry, Maximilian Count von Holnstein, to write the , a letter endorsing the creation of the German Empire with King Wilhelm I of Prussia as Emperor. Nevertheless, Ludwig regretted Bavaria's loss of independence and refused to attend Wilhelm's 18 January proclamation as German Emperor in the Palace of Versailles. Ludwig's brother Prince Otto and his uncle Luitpold went instead.
In the Constitution of the German Empire, Bavaria was able to secure for itself extensive rights, in particular regarding military sovereignty. Not only did the Royal Bavarian Army retain, like the kingdoms of Saxony and Württemberg, its own troops, war ministry, and military justice system but was excluded from the empire-wide regimental renumbering of the army regiments and would only come under imperial control in times of war. Bavaria also kept its light-blue infantry uniforms, the "Raupenhelm" (until 1886), the light cavalry, and some other peculiarities. The officers and men of the Bavarian Army continued to swear their oaths to the King of Bavaria and not the German Emperor. Nevertheless, the uniform cut, equipment, and training was standardised to the Prussian model. When


Hans Gude
Norwegian painter (1825–1903)
Hans Fredrik Gude (March 13, 1825 – August 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 Romanticism. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.
Gude's artistic career was not one marked with drastic change and revolution, but was instead a steady progression that slowly reacted to general trends in the artistic world. Gude's early works are of idyllic, sun-drenched Norwegian landscapes which present a romantic, yet still realistic view of his country. Around 1860 Gude began painting seascapes and other coastal subjects. Gude had difficulty with figure drawing initially and so collaborated with Adolph Tidemand in some of his painting, drawing the landscape himself and allowing Tidemand to paint the figures. Later Gude would work specifically on his figures while at Karlsruhe, and so began populating his paintings with them. Gude initially painted primarily with oils in a studio, basing his works on studies he had done earlier in the field. However, as Gude matured as a painter he began to paint en plein air and espoused the merits of doing so to his students. Gude would paint with watercolors later in life as well as gouache in an effort to keep his art constantly fresh and evolving, and although these were never as well received by the public as his oil paintings, his fellow artists greatly admired them.
Gude spent forty-five years as an art professor and so he played an important role in the development of Norwegian art by acting as a mentor to three generations of Norwegian artists. Young Norwegian artists flocked to wherever Gude was teaching, first at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf and later at the School of Art in Karlsruhe. Gude also served as a professor at the Berlin Academy of Art from 1880 to 1901, although he attracted few Norwegians to the Berlin Academy because by this time Berlin had been surpassed in prestige in the eyes of young Norwegian artists by Paris.
Over the course of his lifetime Gude won numerous medals, was inducted as an honorary member into many art academies, and was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav. He was the father of painter Nils Gude and watercolorist and illustrator Agnes Charlotte Guide. His daughter Sigrid married German sculptor Otto Lessing.
Early life.
Gude was born in Christiania in 1825 the son of Ove Gude, a judge, and Marie Elisabeth Brandt.
Gude began his artistic career with private lessons from Johannes Flintoe, and by 1838 he was attending Flintoe's evening classes at the Royal School of Drawing in Christiania. In the autumn of 1841 Johan Sebastian Welhaven suggested that the young Gude should be sent to Düsseldorf to further his education in the arts.
Academy of Art in Düsseldorf.
At the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf Gude encountered Johann Wilhelm Schirmer – a professor in landscape painting – who advised him to give up his ambitions of being a painter and to return to his regular studies before it was too late. Gude was rejected by the academy, but attracted the attention of Andreas Achenbach who provided him with private lessons.
As a student.
Gude was finally accepted into the academy in the autumn of 1842 and joined Schirmer's landscape painting class where he made quick progress. The landscape painting class at the academy was new at the time, having been founded in 1839 as a counterpart to the more long standing figure painting class. At the time figure painting was considered a more prestigious genre than landscape painting as it was thought only through painting the human body could true beauty be expressed.
Gude, along with most of the class of twelve, received a grade of "good" his first semester and was described as "talented". On his report card for the 1843–44 school year he was the only student to be described as "very talented", and the report for his fourth year said that he "paints Norwegian scenery in a truthful and distinctive manner".
While Gude was a student, two different trends in landscaping were developing at the academy: a romantic trend and a classical trend. The romanticists depicted wild, untamed wildernesses with dark forests, soaring peaks, and rushing water to capture the terrifying and overpowering aspects of nature. They used rich, saturated colors with strong contrast of light and shadow. The classicists were more interested in recreating landscapes from the heroic or mythical past and often set them in the midst of religious or historical events. The classicists focused on lines and clarity in their compositions. It was through Achenbach – Gude's first teacher upon arriving in Düsseldorf – that he was exposed to the romanticist tradition, while it was through his classes with and later time teaching for Schirmer that he was exposed to the classicist traditions.
In 1827 Schirmer and Carl Friedrich Lessing founded a Society for Landscape Composition that would meet a few times each year at Schirmer's home where Schirmer would offer advice on the composition of landscape paintings. Fifteen years later Gude began attending the meetings of the society with other students from his class, but as he progressed to greater levels of realism Gude began to make it clear that he did not agree with the ideas of composition Schirmer put forward during the meetings, saying specifically:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />I painted a large mountain view for which my studies of the Rondane Mountains provided the subject, and I had severe problems because Schirmer did not approve of the realistic rendering, and his suggestion that I should group the mountains more in accordance with the Classical ideal was impossible for me to accept.
In Düsseldorf Gude met Carl Friedrich Lessing who, while initially aloof, became Gude's friend and colleague. Their relationship was such a close one that Gude's eldest daughter eventually married one of Lessing's sons. The two artists differed in style though, with Lessing painting dramatic, historical works while Gude never once introduced historical events into his own paintings.
Gude served as a student teacher at the academy until 1844, before leaving to live in Christiania. On July 25, 1850, Gude married Betsy Charlotte Juliane Anker (1830–1912), the daughter of General Erik Anker, in Christiania (today called Oslo).
Professorship.
In 1854 Gude was appointed the professor of landscape painting at the academy replacing his former teacher Schirmer. Gude was twenty-nine when appointed, making him the youngest professor at the academy. His appointment was partially political, in a conflict between Rhineland and Prussian interests Gude was seen as a neutral candidate because of his Norwegian roots. Gude was recommended for the position by the current Director of the academy Wilhelm von Schadow, but only after Andreas Achenbach, Oswald Achenbach, and Lessing had refused the post due to lack of suitable pay. In regards to his position and compensation, Gude wrote:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />About this post of professor I can only say I cannot comprehend why I should not accept pay for being a teacher, since I really have to have pupils. All those who wished that I should be their teacher are here, and poor as church mice. If I become professor, they can now enter the Academy. I will in any case be here for many years, so I might just as well paint in a studio twice as big and grand as any private one, especially if I receive a salary into the bargain. When I become tired of it, I can always hand in my notice.
Throughout his tenure, Gude had private pupils in addition to his normal classes. As a professor Gude taught six hours of class, held two hours of office hours, took turns with other professors supervising the nude drawing class and attended staff meetings. In 1857 Gude handed in his resignation, officially citing family considerations and failing health as his reasons for resigning, although in his memoirs he blamed opposition and backbiting from two of his pupils. The landscape painting professorship was the bottom of the pay scale at the academy, and Gude was one of the few professors to be refused a raise when others received them in 1855. Others have suggested that Gude wished to leave the academy for fear for becoming stuck in a rut artistically. Gude received better treatment from the academy after he turned in his resignation, and it would take him a full five years to finally leave Düsseldorf. Although professors at the academy complained that their teaching prevented them from undertaking more lucrative endeavors, Gude was able to sell enough works to afford a modest house in Düsseldorf which stood in what is now Hofgarten.
Norwegian or German art.
By the mid-19th century the academy in Düsseldorf had become a center for training Norwegian artists, but within Norway there arose a debate as to whether the art was truly Norwegian as it did not originate in Norway, and was in fact produced by artists who had been trained in Germany. The debate was sparked by proposals to build an art school in Norway, and it was therefore essential for supporters of a Norwegian academy to argue that Norwegian values could not be instilled in the artists if they had to go abroad.
In a letter to Jørgen Moe Gude writes that he see possibility for his own development in Düsseldorf, and that even if it would cause him to be known as a German artist instead of a Norwegian, he would not be ashamed of the fact. In defense of Norwegian artists at the academy, Gude writes that they were not simply imitating German artists:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />If we learn something from Achenbach and Lessing, it is certainly not to our detriment; no one has ever said about me or Tidemand or, so far as I know, any of us Norwegian Düsseldorfers that we copy and imitate.
Gude was convinced that for Norwegian artists at the academy it was impossible to escape their heritage and that Norway influenced their art whether they wanted it to or not. On this subject he wrote:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />[...] and you, my compatriots in Norway, have no grounds for complaining that we have forgotten the dear, familiar and specific character with which God has endowed our land and our nation. That is so firmly entrenched in our being that it finds expression, whether we like it or not. Do not, therefore, insult us further with such [an accusation]; it hurts our feelings, and thereby proves how unfounded it is, for otherwise it would be easy to treat it with indifference.
Von Schadow however argued the Gude's art was in fact German in an attempt to defend his nomination of Gude to succeed Schirmer. He wrote of Gude that "His education is totally German, his style unwontedly elevated."
Wales.
Many of Gude's peers moved on from the academy in Düsseldorf to other art institutes, but Gude decided to seek more direct contact with nature. Gude had gained a foothold in the British art market in the 1850s after his works were accepted into the galleries of Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere and the Marquess of Lansdowne, and so when an English art dealer and former student of Gude – Mr. Stiff – suggested Gude might find success in England, he was quick to respond. In the autumn of 1862 Gude set off for the Lledr Valley near Conwy. Wales, a place renowned for its picturesque scenery, was already home to a colony of British plein-air artists. While small groups of artists living in the countryside in order to inspire each other, be closer to their subject and escape the city were common, Gude was one of the first Norwegian artists to live in such a manner. Gude rented a house overlooking River Lledr where he painted one of the ancient Roman bridges which was popular with artists of the time.
Gude reports that the British and Welsh landscape painters were disdainful of artists from the continent, and that they used a very different style of painting from the continental artists. Whereas Gude and fellow continental artists would go out in nature and make sketches to act as studies for studio works, the British and Welsh painters set up their easels in the field and worked on their paintings with their subjects in front of them. Gude attempted to improve his reputation among the local painters with exhibitions at the Royal Academy's spring shows in London in 1863 and 1864, but both were flops that Gude described as "useful but bitter medicine". Despite these setbacks – furthered by the strain the trip had put on Gude's finances due to lack of paintings being sold – Gude felt the trip was of great benefit to himself as an artist, writing to his brother-in-law Theodor Kjerulf:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />It was sad to leave the lovely yet wild scenery that had become so dear to us, and a peaceful, quiet home it had been. My English stay was of great benefit to me in that I freed myself from many of the prevailing studio maxims by being alone and in a landscape so new to me that it forced me to observe more keenly.
While in Wales Gude was visited by Adolph Tidemand together with Frederik Collett, and the three traveled to Caernarvon and Holyhead from which Gude observed his first real Atlantic storm.
Baden School of Art.
In December 1863 Gude was offered and accepted a professorship at the Baden School of Art in Karlsruhe where he would once again succeed Schirmer, and so he left Wales. Gude was hesitant to take the position as he felt that it was working for the enemy but was unable to support himself in Norway due to the lack of an art school. He wrote about his thoughts on the position to Kjerulf, stating:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />At this time I feel oppressively and profoundly what it means to float about the world without a mother country – now I have obtained a post, and shall serve to the best of my powers the country that may shortly be at open war with my own native land; I shall express no sympathies and be deaf to what goes on beyond the walls of my own studio; that which makes hearts at home beat faster will not exist for me; and how offensive and unbearable it will be to watch the enthusiasm displayed around me for the rights of a German nationality, while my own nation perhaps bleeds to death in a struggle for existence. On the other hand, how serious my commitments are to my wife and children; and I shall use my talents where I am permitted to – at home I can make no use of them, and in two to three years I would come to the end of my career and sink into deep misery with all my children – I am sure of that.
It is suspected that Gude was offered the professorship due to a recommendation from Lessing. When Gude accepted the position at Karlsruhe the flow of Norwegian painters to the Düsseldorf Academy redirected to Karlsruhe, which would produce many of the Norwegian painters of the 1860s and 1870s, among them Frederik Collett, Johan Martin Nielssen, Kitty L. Kielland, Nicolai Ulfsten, Eilif Peterssen, Marcus Grønvold, Otto Sinding, Christian Krohg and Frits Thaulow.
In Karlsruhe Gude continued to faithfully reproduce the landscapes he saw, a style that he passed on to his students by taking them to Chiemsee to paint the lake "en plein air". While on these trips Gude and his pupils often encountered Eduard Schleich the Elder with his own students from Munich who were, as Gude described, only out to capture the mood of the scene and were skeptical of the advantages of painting in the sunshine. Gude also took special interest in how light reflected in water while in Karlsruhe, as well as expanding his study of the human figure. Although Gude rarely portrayed humans for their own sake, he began populating his paintings with convincing, if sometimes anatomically incorrect, individuals.
Gude's painted "Fra Chiemsee" while at Karlsruhe. The painting which was shown in Vienna was so enthusiastically received that it was purchased by the Kunsthistorisches Hofmuseum for display, won Gude a number of medals, and earned him membership in the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
The school in Karlsruhe was founded by the Grand Duke of Baden whom Gude had good relations with. Because of this fact Gude received better pay than at the Düsseldorf Academy, had spacious and rent-free accommodations and was given generous periods of leave which allowed him to travel in the summer to perform studies for future paintings. Gude served as the director of Karlsruhe from 1866 to 1868 and again from 1869 to 1870, where he introduced several of his own educational principles designed to develop pupil's individual talent. But Gude's reign as director at Karlsruhe was not without resistance to his methods, and it is this opposition that he cites as his reason for visiting the Berlin Academy of Art that as early as 1874 in search of better conditions. Because of Gude's visits to Berlin, his relation with the Grand Duke became strained as the Grand Duke felt that the concessions he had made to Gude were so great that Gude should be grateful and not look for a professorships elsewhere. Gude remained at Karlsruhe for six more years after his first visits to the Berlin Academy of Art, but in 1880 he decided to retire from the Karlsruhe school to take up a position in Berlin.
Berlin Academy of Art.
In 1880 Gude accepted a position to lead the master studio in landscape painting at the Academy of Art in Berlin, a position which gave him a spot on the academy's Senate. The Senate was responsible for upholding "all the artistic interests of the state" and membership was a mark of the highest official recognition of Gude's work.
In 1895 the Christiania Art Society held a comprehensive retrospective of Gude's works including his paintings, oil studies, watercolors, sketches and etchings. When asked what should be shown at the exhibition Gude replied that "[...]perhaps room could be found for studies and drawings; I rather think that these will meet with interest. They are also (unfortunately) of greater artistic value." By the time of the exhibition Gude had abandoned his previous style of painting large-scale compositions based on studies, and was working in mediums other than oil. In Berlin Gude began working more heavily in gouache and watercolor in an effort to preserve the 'freshness' of his art. Although Gude did not heavily exhibit his watercolors they still gained admiration from follow painters, including Harriet Backer who said:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />I believe that if Gude exhibited watercolours and study drawings, he would have the warmest admirers among painters. [...] Let it rather happen now, while there can be controversy and a row and some lively discussion about his art[...].
Gude would spend a few weeks each summer near the Baltic coast where he drew material for numerous paintings of Ahlbeck and Rügen. Although Gude filled these paintings with more figures than his earlier works, his focus was still on accurately capturing the scene and especially the landscape.
As the century drew to a close the established art academies faced 'secession' movements from groups of artists looking to branch of into different style. Gude rallied around his friend Anton von Werner in defending the academies, going so far as to mock "the so-called Symbolism" movement. As Gude approached the end of his life he felt more and more unable to keep up with the changes in the art world. After a disappointing exhibition in Kristiania in 1902 Gude wrote to Johan Martin Nielssen:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />All I have heard about it [the exhibition] are your and [Wilhelm] Holter's letters, and that acclaim has consoled me after the scorn I have had to suffer in common with many an elderly artist. You recognized several studies from my portfolios, but all of them were more or less unfinished, and over the last two winters I finished them, truly "con amore". I had serious scruples when I decided to exhibit them, because I knew full well how different the opinion of the modernists is, and it is quite understandable that they want to 'take the helm' alone!
In 1880 Gude had between five and eight students, but this number had shrunk to two or three by 1890. In part this reduction of pupils was due to a lack of interest in the Berlin academy, as explained to Gude by Prince Eugén, Duke of Närke who wrote that he, as well as numerous other young artists, had more of a taste for French art than German.
Gude retired from the Berlin Academy in 1901. He died two years later in Berlin in 1903.
Awards and honors.
Gude was also a member of the Order of the Zähringer Lion, Order of the Red Eagle, and the Order of Franz Joseph.
Academy memberships.
Gude earned membership in the following art academies:
Notes.
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References.
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Nødhavn Ved Norskekysten
Painting by Hans Gude
Nødhavn Ved Norskekysten (English translation: Port of Refuge on the Norwegian Coast or Norwegian Harbor of Refuge) is a painting by Norwegian romanticist painter Hans Gude completed in 1873.
Exhibition history.
The painting was first shown at the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 where it won a gold medal. It was later displayed at an international exhibition of art at the Academy of Art in Berlin in 1896 while Gude was a professor at the Academy, and yet later still it was shown in Dresden in 1904, the year after Gude's death.
Scene and style.
The painting shows a realistic rendering of a storm hitting a Norwegian harbor, with a brig stranded in the distant breakers. The painting is divided into a foreground, where women and children watch the rescue effort; a middle ground, where various moored ships bob in the strong waves; and a background, where wavelike rocks enclose the refuge point and bring the eye down to the stranded brig. The colors used are predominantly the blue-grey of the sea and the beige of the reflections on the sea which serve to unify the piece. Various elements of the scene including the waterfront buildings, the groups of figures, and the departing rowboat, would be reused by Gude in later works.
Ownership.
In 1875, the painting was purchased by the Bremen Art Society, although Gude incorrectly identifies them as the Stadtgalerie Bremen in his notes about the sale. In 1907 the painting was transferred to the Kunsthalle Bremen. In 1920 the painting was auctioned off due in part to changing tastes in art and the painting's large size () which made it difficult to store. In 1932 the painting was auctioned off again in Oslo where it was purchased by its current owner.
References.
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Johan Christian Dahl
Norwegian painter (1788–1857)
Johan Christian Claussen Dahl (24 February 1788 – 14 October 1857), often known as J. C. Dahl or I. C. Dahl, was a Danish-Norwegian artist who is considered the first great romantic painter in Norway, the founder of the "golden age" of Norwegian painting. He is often described as "the father of Norwegian landscape painting" and is regarded as the first Norwegian painter to reach a level of artistic accomplishment comparable to that attained by the greatest European artists of his day. He was also the first to acquire genuine fame and cultural renown abroad. As one critic has put it, "J.C. Dahl occupies a central position in Norwegian artistic life of the first half of the 19th century.
Although Dahl spent much of his life outside of Norway, his love for his country is clear in the motifs he chose for his paintings and in his extraordinary efforts on behalf of Norwegian culture generally. He was, for example, a key figure in the founding of the Norwegian National Gallery and of several other major art institutions in Norway, as well as in the preservation of Norwegian stave churches and the restoration of the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim and Bergenhus Fortress in Bergen.
Life.
Early life.
Dahl came from a simple background – his father was a modest fisherman in Bergen, Norway – and he would later look back at his youth with bitterness. He regretted that he never had a "real teacher" in his childhood and, despite all his spectacular success, he believed that if he had been more fortunate in his birth, he would have achieved even more than he had.
Time at Bergen.
As a boy, Dahl was educated by a sympathetic mentor at the Bergen Cathedral who at first thought that this bright student would make a good priest, but then, recognizing his remarkably precocious artistic ability, arranged for him to be trained as an artist. From 1803 to 1809 Dahl studied with the painter Johan Georg Müller, whose workshop was the most important one in Bergen at the time. Still, Dahl looked back on his teacher as having kept him in ignorance in order to exploit him, putting him to work painting theatrical sets, portraits, and views of Bergen and its surroundings. Another mentor, Lyder Sagen, showed the aspiring artist books about art and awakened his interest in historical and patriotic subjects. It was also Sagen who took up a collection that made it possible for Dahl to go to Copenhagen in 1811 to complete his education at the academy there.
As important as Dahl's studies at the academy in Copenhagen were his experiences in the surrounding countryside and in the city's art collections. In 1812 he wrote to Sagen that the landscape artists he most wished to emulate were Ruisdahl and Everdingen, and for that reason he was studying "nature above all," Dahl's artistic program was, then, already in place: he would become a part of the great landscape tradition, but he would also be as faithful as possible to nature itself.
Dahl held that a landscape painting should not just depict a specific view, but should also say something about the land's nature and character – the greatness of its past and the life and work of its current inhabitants. The mood was often idyllic, often melancholy. When he added snow to a landscape he painted in the summer, it was not to show the light and colors of snow; it was to use snow as a symbol of death. As one critic has put it, "Unlike the radically Romantic works also appearing at the time, Dahl softens his landscape, introducing elements of genre painting by imbuing it with anecdotal materials: In the background a wisp of smoke rises from a cabin, perhaps the home of the hunter on the snow-covered field." Thanks to Sagen's recommendations and to his own personal charm, Dahl soon gained access to the leading social circles in Copenhagen.
Dahl took part in annual art exhibitions in Copenhagen beginning in 1812, but his real breakthrough came in 1815, when he exhibited no fewer than 13 paintings. Prince Christian Frederik of Denmark, who developed an early interest in Dahl's artistic genius and saw to it that his works were purchased for the royal collection, became a lifelong friend and patron of the artist.
In 1816 C. W. Eckersberg returned from abroad with his paintings of Roman settings; Dahl was impressed at once, and they became good friends and exchanged pictures. Dahl's 1817 painting "Den Store Kro i Fredensborg" marked the real beginning of his lifelong production of oil paintings depicting natural subjects.
After his success in Copenhagen, Dahl realized that he wanted to live as an independent, self-supporting artist. One challenge facing him was that the academic preference of the day was for historical paintings with moral messages. Landscapes were considered the lowest kind of art, and perhaps even not as art at all, but as a purely mechanical imitation of nature. The only landscapes that could be considered art, according to the academy, were ideal, imaginary landscapes in pastoral or heroic styles. In accordance with this reigning taste, Dahl attempted to give his Danish themes a certain atmospheric character in order to lift them up above what was considered a merely commercial level. But at the same time it was his deepest wish to provide a more faithful picture of Norwegian nature than were offered by the old-fashioned, dry paintings of Haas and Lorentzen. This desire was partly motivated by homesickness and patriotism, but it was also suited to the public taste of the day for "picturesque" works.
Abroad in Dresden.
Dahl traveled to Dresden in September 1818. He arrived with introductions to the city's leading citizens and to major artists such as Caspar David Friedrich, who helped him establish himself there and became his close friend. One critic has written: "Friedrich's still, meticulously executed landscapes - products of an art informed by his strict Protestant upbringing and a seeking for the divine in nature - were justifiably famous by the time he and Dahl became acquainted. We are able to see his "Two Men Contemplating the Moon" (1819), which ranks among his greatest works, and features two "Rückenfiguren," or figures seen from behind, solemnly and companionably gazing at a young sickle moon from the edge of an old forest. 'Greifswald in Moonlight' (1816–17) depicts the artist's birthplace in Pomerania, on the Baltic coast: bathed in an even, gauzy moonlight, the ancient university town assumes an almost ethereal appearance."
Friedrich was fourteen years Dahl's elder and an established artist, but the two found in each other a shared love for nature and a shared enthusiasm for a way of depicting nature that was based on the study of nature itself rather than on the academic cliches that they both profoundly despised. One writer has put it this way: "A warm and sociable character, he soon met and became friendly with the more introverted and reclusive Friedrich, recording how they once walked together in the park of the Grösser Garten among 'many lovely trees of different kinds, and the moon looked beautiful behind the dark fir trees.'"
Together with Friedrich and Carl Gustav Carus, Dahl would become one of the Dresden painters of the period who exerted a decisive influence on German Romantic painting.
In Dresden, as in Copenhagen, Dahl traveled around the area to draw subjects that could be of use to him in larger works that would be painted later in his atelier. He wrote to Prince Christian Frederik in 1818 that "most of all I am representing nature in all its freedom and wildness." Dahl found enough material in the Dresden area to supply motifs for his paintings, but he continued to paint imaginary landscapes with forests, mountains, and waterfalls. One such painting, completed in 1819, entitled "Norsk fjellandskap med elv" (Mountainous Norwegian landscape with river"), garnered great attention among younger artists who considered the striking natural quality of the painting a breath of fresh air on Dresden's stagnant art scene. Another monumental waterfall painting, completed the next year, was lavished with praised by the critic for Kunstblatt who said that Dahl was greater than Jacob van Ruisdael. Dahl was accepted into the Dresden academy in 1820.
Abroad in Italy.
Prince Christian Frederik wrote to Dahl in 1820 from Italy and invited him to join him at the Gulf of Naples. Dahl was at the time courting a young woman named Emilie von Bloch, but felt he should take the prince up on his offer, so he married Emilie quickly and traveled to Italy the next day. He ended up spending 10 months in Italy. Though he missed his bride, the sojourn was a decisive factor in his artistic development. It was in Italy, with its strong southern light, that Dahl's art truly flowered. It forced him to see nature plain, without the mediation of the old masters' renderings of light and color.
Dahl went to Rome in February 1821. He spent a great deal of time visiting museums, meeting other artists, and painting pictures to sell. In addition to painting sights in Rome and pictures of the Gulf of Naples, he painted landscapes inspired by the mountains of Norway. Dahl said that not until he was in Rome did he truly appreciate Norwegian nature. In June 1821 Dahl returned north to Emilie and a quiet life of family and painting.
Dahl quickly became a member of Dresden's leading circles of poets, artists, and scientists, among them the archeologist C. A. Böttiger, publisher of Artistisches Notizenblatt, who ran a major article on Dahl in 1822.
Mentorship.
As a member of the academy, Dahl always dedicated his time to young artists who sought him out. In 1824 he and Friedrich were named "extraordinary professors" who had no chair but who received a regular salary. In 1823 Dahl moved in with Friedrich, so that many of his students, such as Knud Baade, Peder Balke, and Thomas Fearnley, were equally influenced by both artists. "Well before their meeting," writes one critic, "Dahl had also painted a number of 'moonlights' and, travelling in Europe, he was in the Bay of Naples in 1821 when Mount Vesuvius was active. Here he painted 'Boats on the Beach Near Naples', where fishing crafts lie at anchor in the calm, shimmering waters with the twin peaks of the mountain smoking and flaming behind. Predictably, after his close association with Friedrich began—the two families shared a house in Dresden from 1823—he was considerably influenced by him, but his own more spontaneous and painterly style soon prevailed. Clients sometimes commissioned pictures from them both, a tranquil coastal scene by Friedrich to pair with a more stormy subject from Dahl."
Dahl never formed a "school" around himself, but rather preferred for his students to cultivate their own styles; it was against his principles and his respect for artistic freedom to try to inhibit his students' individuality. It was this impulse toward individuality that later caused him to turn down an offer of a permanent chair at the academy – he didn't want to feel compelled to show up for class when he was busy working on a painting.
Dahl continued his studies of nature in the area around Dresden when he had the time, or on longer trips which provided him with themes for his paintings. But most often he painted the view of the Elbe outside his windows in various kinds of light. Like John Constable, Dahl felt that the sky was an important part of a landscape painting, and he never grew tired of watching the clouds move over the flat plain. One critic has compared two paintings of Friedrich and Dahl: "In...Dahl's 'Mother and Child by the Sea', there are echoes of Friedrich's 'Woman by the Sea' (1818). Whereas in Friedrich's work a woman dressed for the windy weather sits idly watching five fishing boats sailing past, in Dahl's picture, there seems to be a more personal note, with echoes of his own upbringing in a seafaring community, as the mother and small child eagerly await the return of the little ship from the sea." The same critic has written about one of his paintings of Dresden: "Dahl also commemorated the magnificent Baroque buildings of his adopted city, and a version of his "View of Dresden by Moonlight" (1838) has travelled from the National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design in Oslo. This small picture, measuring only 18.5 x 34.5 cm (7¼" x 13½"), shows the dome of the Frauenkirche and the tower of the Hofkirche dominating the skyline; silvers and deep blue combine to give it a wonderful jewel-like effect, together with a certain elegiac quality, perhaps indicative of the artist's awareness that his long friendship with Friedrich was nearing an end."
Return home.
As Dahl wrote in 1828 to the director of the Dresden academy, he found the area around Dresden useful for nature studies, but the "real thing" was always missing; that was something he could only find in his mountainous homeland. He viewed himself as a "more Nordic painter" with a "love for seacoasts, mountains, waterfalls, sailboats, and pictures of the sea in daylight and moonlight." He longed to return to Norway, but not until 1826 was he able to make a journey home.
He made subsequent trips to Norway in 1834, 1839, 1844, and 1850, mostly exploring and painting the mountains, leading to the monumental works "Fortundalen" (1836) and "Stalheim" (1842). During his visits to Norway he received "an enthusiastic welcome as a painter of renown."
A critic notes