6.5 Still-Life in the 19th Century
In other areas the impact of the Dutch tradition is easier to demonstrate. Flower-, genre- and landscape painting were accompanied by those examples quite a bit longer along the way than we have traced up till now. A few references must be sufficient here, all the more because we have to accept that we must descend to the lower parts of the artistic -- that is to say the unartistic -- production.
The flower piece, which flourished so well on Van Huijsum’s soil at the end of the 18th century, had lost nothing of its vitality in the new century. Painters like Joseph Nigg (1782-1863) [2-3], Leopold Brunner (1788-1866) [1], Ludwig Reinhardt (1849-1870) [4-5],1 the better known Franz Xaver Petter (1791-1866) [6-7], Anton Hartinger (1806-1890) [8], Andreas Lach (1817-1882) [9-10], Josef Lauer (1818-1881) [11-12] and others, relentlessly painted their Jan van Huijsum bouquets and Abraham Mignon garlands, as if the taste for flower painting were an everlasting constancy.2
1
Leopold Brunner (I)
Flower piece in a stoneware vase, dated 1838
Munich, art dealer Henrich Gallery
2
Joseph Nigg
Still life of flowers, c. 1835
Vienna, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, inv./cat.nr. 3630
3
Joseph Nigg
Bouquet of flowers in a niche, before 1838
Vienna, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, inv./cat.nr. 3629
4
Ludwig Reinhardt after Jan van Huijsum
Flower piece in a basket on a marble ledge, c. 1869-1870
5
Ludwig Reinhardt after Jan van Huijsum
Fruit, flowers and insects on a marble ledge, c. 1869-1870
6
Franz Xaver Petter
Flower piece, dated 1831
Vienna, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, inv./cat.nr. 7872
7
Franz Xaver Petter
Bouquet of flowers in a vase, dated 1845
Vienna, private collection Liechtenstein - The Princely Collections, inv./cat.nr. GE 2096
8
Anton Hartinger
Flower piece, dated 1834
Private collection
9
Andreas Lach
Fruit still life of peaches and grapes
10
Andreas Lach
Flower piece of of roses, violins and grapes
11
Josef Lauer
Still life with flowers, sparrow and vine branch, dated 1848
Vienna, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, inv./cat.nr. 7917
12
Josef Lauer
Still life with flowers, a statue of the Madonna and a rosary, dated 1851
Even Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793-1865), whom we will meet shortly one more time, was in this area a painter bound by tradition [13-17].3
13
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
Still-life with oysters, bottles of wine, paté, grapes and a parrot, dated 1822
Debrecen (Hungary), Déri Museum
14
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
Still-life with fish, oysters and wine bottle, dated 1837
Amsterdam, art dealer Goudstikker
15
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
Fruit still-life with oysters and parrot, dated 1831
Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, inv./cat.nr. 34678
16
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
Fruit piece on a marble ledge, dated 1842
Vienna, Graf Siegfried von Wimpffen
17
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller free after Jan Weenix
Still-life with dead hare in a park, c. 1820
In Germany painters like this are few in number. Nevertheless, Johann Wilhelm Preyer (1803-1889), the ‘most important fruit still-life painter of the 19th century’,4 took up the never lost tradition of Jan van Huijsum in venerable Düsseldorf [18-19].5 Caspar Arnold Grein, a pupil of flower painter Johann Martin Metz, maintained this tradition all his life.6 In Munich a fresh wind was blowing: the still-lifes of Otto Scholderer (1834-1902) [20] and Carl Schuch (1846-1903) [21] are boldly drawn, modern paintings, whose technique, if we want to find a connection with Holland, most likely relates to the school of Frans Hals.7
18
Johann Wilhelm Preyer
Still life of fruit, dated 1851
19
Johann Wilhelm Preyer
Bouquet of flowers in a glass vase on a marble ledge, dated 1828
Berlin (city, Germany), private collection Baron von (1804-1877) Decker
20
Otto Scholderer
Still life with Tatarian asters in a glass vase and a an overturned wicker basket with apricots
21
Carl Schuch
Corner of a room with hanging partridge, cheese plate and storage pots, after 1888
Berlin (city, Germany), Nationalgalerie (Berlijn), inv./cat.nr. A I 1010
Notes
1 [Van Leeuwen 2018] The majority of his work consists of animal painting; these copies after Jan van Huijsum are an exception in his oeuvre, as far as we know.
2 [Van Leeuwen 2018] On flower painting in Vienna in the 19th century: Frodl/frodl-Scheemann 2010.
3 [Gerson 1942/1983] Examples: Auction Vienna 15 May 1918, no. 338; Auction Vienna 2 May 1917, no. 154 (of 1822); Exhibition J. Goudstikker, Amsterdam 1933, no. 345 (of 1837); Roessler s.a., ill. 129-130 (of 1831 and 1842). [Van Leeuwen 2018] Waldmüller also made a free copy after Jan Weenix in Salzburg around 1820 (Feuchtmüller 1996, p. 425, no. 77, ill.)
4 [Gerson 1942/1983] Thieme/Becker 1907-1950, vol. 27 (1913), p. 393.
5 [Van Leeuwen 2018] On Preyer: Weiss/Paffrath et al. 2009.
6 [Van Leeuwen 2018] See § 2.1.
7 [Van Leeuwen 2018] The composition of fig. 21 seems related to still-lifes of Christopher Paudiss, such as RKDimages 253705.