Leo von König

Leo Freiherr von König (1871-1944) was a German painter and member of the Berlin Secession.

Leo von König
BornFebruary 28, 1871 (1871-02-28)
Braunschweig
DiedApril 19, 1944 (1944-04-20) (aged 73)
Tutzing

Biography

His father, Götz von König, was a military officer who later became a General of the Cavalry. From 1889 to 1894, he attended the Prussian Academy of Art then, from 1894 to 1897, the Académie Julian in Paris, where he studied with Jules Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury.

After 1900, he lived in Berlin. He married one of his students, Anna von Hansemann (1897-1992) and she frequently served as his model.[1] He was one of the late comers to the Berlin Secession. Among his best-known portraits are those of Gerhart Hauptmann, Ernst Barlach, Emil Nolde, Käthe Kollwitz and Eugen d’Albert.

He also created portraits of Reichsminister Bernhard Rust and Joseph Goebbels and posed for his friend, the sculptor Arno Breker. During that time, he represented Germany in one of the art competitions at the 1936 Summer Olympics.[2] He was not well thought of by Adolf Hitler, however, and his works were removed from the "Großen Deutschen Kunstausstellung" at the Haus der Kunst in 1937. Four years later, he was nominated for the Goethe Medal by Albert Bormann, but was not selected. Soon after, he was named an honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, by Baldur von Schirach.[3] He was also a member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund.

In 1943, after his studio in Berlin was destroyed by an Allied bombing, he moved to Tutzing, where he died the following year.[4]

Selected paintings
  • Portrait of the art historian, Fritz Nemitz
  • Before the Dance
  • Young Woman (his wife, Anna) with a Cat
  • At the Breakfast Table

References
  1. Eva-Maria Herbertz: Leben in seinem Schatten. Frauen berühmter Künstler, (Living in the Shadows; wives of famous painters) Allitera Verlag, München 2009. ISBN 978-3-86906-052-1
  2. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Leo von König". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2017-07-01.
  3. Ernst Klee: Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009 ISBN 978-3-596-17153-8
  4. König, Leo von  in: Hans Vollmer (Ed.): Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler des XX. Jahrhunderts. Dritter Band (K-P), E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1999 (Studienausgabe). ISBN 3-363-00730-2 (S. 80f)
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