Jakob Götzenberger

Jakob Götzenberger (Franz Jakob Julius Götzenberger, Heidelberg 4 November 1802 – Darmstadt 6 October 1866) was a German mural painter and portraitist, a pupil of Peter Cornelius. He spent much of the later part of his career in England.

Jakob Götzenberger; portrait by Louis Krevel (1834)

Biography
Water nymph of the Wildsee, fresco in the Trinkhall at Baden-Baden

Götzenberger was born in Heidelberg. He studied art in Düsseldorf, where he became a pupil of Peter Cornelius,[1] a member of the Nazarene Brotherhood which, largely inspired by the artists of the early Italian Renaissance, had promoted the revival of fresco-painting in Germany.[2]

It was through Cornelius that Götzenberger came to carry out the greater part of a major commission for a set of four frescoes at the "Aula" (auditorium) of the University of Bonn. The compositions, each representing one of the four faculties of the university, were, on Cornelius' instructions, based on those of Raphael's paintings in the Stanze in the Vatican.[3] Work began in 1823; initially Götzenberger acted only as an assistant, Cornelius having delegated the main work to Carl Heinrich Hermann. However, in early 1825, with only the first of the four murals, representing Theology, substantially underway, Cornelius left to take up a teaching post in Munich; most of his pupils, including Hermann, went with him, and Götzenberger was left with the task of completing the work in Bonn.[4] He spent some time in Italy, where he made the designs for the remaining subjects,[1] before finally completing the murals in 1836.[4] They had fallen into disrepair by the early 20th century, and were destroyed by bombing during the Second World War.[4]

Götzenberger was in London in early 1827, and on 2 February was introduced to William Blake by Henry Crabb Robinson. He later said "I saw in England many men of talents, but only three men of Genius, Coleridge, Flaxman and Blake, and of these Blake was the greatest."[5]

A major commission came from Ursula von Herding, for whom he painted a cycle of frescoes of the life of Christ in the chapel at the Dalberg-Herdingschen Castle in Nierstein, Hesse, newly built for her in 1839–42.[1][6] He was appointed court painter and inspector of the gallery at Mannheim, and in 1844 decorated the loggia of the Trinkhalle (pump room) at Baden-Baden with 14 compositions illustrating legends of the Black Forest region.[7]

England

In 1847 he moved to England, where he painted portraits, interiors, and a few decorative schemes, including one for Lord Ellesmere,[1] at Bridgewater House, London,[8] where he not only executed the paintings, but also designed the stucco architectural settings. The result provoked the displeasure of the house's architect, Charles Barry.[9] He is also recorded as having painted a series of works on subjects from Dante's Divine Comedy for a Mr Morrison[10] and later carried out a commission for set of four panels illustrating "The Ballad of Chevy Chase" for the guard room at Alnwick Castle.[11][12][13]

His depictions of interiors were praised in The Spectator for their "truthful and pleasant light and shade, figures introduced with natural appropriateness, and portrait-like truth of rendering."[14] There is a conversation piece by Götzenberger in the collection of Jesus College, Oxford.[15]

He lived at 46 Berners Street in London.[10] Some English sources of the time refer to him as "Francis Gotzenberg",[11] and he became a naturalised British subject under this name in 1859.[16]

Last years

Götzenberger spent the years 1863–5 in Lucerne, and died at Darmstadt on 6 October 1866.[17]

See also

Notes
  1. New International Encyclopedia, 1905
  2. Schiff, Gerd (1981). "An Epoch of Longing". German Masters of the Nineteenth Century: Paintings and Drawings from the Federal Republic of Germany (Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). p. 17. Free download available.
  3. Weschenfelder , Klaus. "Prince Albert: early encounters with art and collecting" (PDF). Royal Collection.
  4. Rudiger, Julia. "Die Vier Fakultäten" (PDF).
  5. Robinson, Henry Crabb (1922). Morley, Edith J. (ed.). Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Lamb. Manchester University Press. pp. 13, 22 and 26.
  6. "Das Dalberg-Herdingsche Schloß in Nierstein" (in German). Geschichtsverein Nierstein. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  7. "Jakob Götzenbergers Freskobilder in der Trinkhalle zu Baden-Baden" (in German). Das Goethezeitportal. Retrieved 18 December 2013. The paintings survive in situ.
  8. "Studien zur Charakeristik bedeutender Künstler der Gegenwart. LIV Jakob Goetzenberger (Nekrolog)". Die Dioskuren: Deutsche Kunstzeitung (in German): 313–4. 4 November 1866.
  9. F. H. W. Sheppard (General Editor) (1960). "Cleveland Row". Survey of London: volumes 29 and 30: St James Westminster, Part 1. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  10. "Herr Gotzenberg". Art Journal: 266. 1855.
  11. Hartshorne, C.H. (1865). A Guide to Alnwick Castle. London: Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer. p. 55..
  12. Pevsner, Nikolaus; Ian Richmond; John Grundy; Grace McCombie; Peter Ryder; et al. (2002). The Buildings of England: Northumberland (2nd ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 139. ISBN 9780300096385.
  13. "Painted panels home at last". Northumberland Gazette. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  14. "Works by Herr Götzenberg". The Spectator: 196. 16 February 1816.
  15. "Conversation Piece, Henry Foulkes, Thomas Briscoe and William Dyke". Art UK. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  16. "Naturalisation Papers: Gotzenberg, Francis, from Baden. Certificate 2976 issued 13 July 1859". National Archives.
  17. Holland, Hyacinth (1879). "Götzenberger, Jakob". Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. 9. Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. pp. 515–6. Retrieved 18 December 2013.

References

Media related to Jakob Götzenberger at Wikimedia Commons

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