Louise Seidler
Encyclopedia
Georg Friedrich Kersting
Georg Friedrich Kersting was a German painter, best known for his Biedermeier-style interior paintings and his association with fellow artist Caspar David Friedrich.- Biography :...
.
Early life
Louise Seidler was born on 15 May 1786 was born to an academic in the university in Jena. She spent her youth with her grandmother (under whom she learned music and drawing) then on her grandmother's death was adopted by the wife of a doctor Stieler at Gotha. Her love of art was only developed under the sculptor Friedrich Wilhelm Eugen DöllFriedrich Wilhelm Eugen Döll
Friedrich Wilhelm Eugen Döll was a German sculptor.-Life:A pupil under Ney, he spent time in Paris and Rome from 1770 to 1773 on behalf of Ernst . In Rome he trained further under Raphael Mengs and Johann Friedrich Reiffenstein...
, who had returned to Gotha after an eleven year stay in Rome.
Return to Jena
Back in Jena she lived in her father's house, next door to Goethe's home in Jena's Schloss, getting to know him in her childhood. In Jena she also became friends with Silvie von Ziegesar and Pauline GotterPauline Gotter
Pauline Gotter was the second wife of Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling and a friend of Louise Seidler and Sylvie von Ziegesar.- Life :...
, later wife of the Jena professor Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling. Louise Seidler gained full admission to intellectual circles in the city, which then included Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
, Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, a movement that developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant...
, Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling , Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality as a whole revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism.Hegel developed a comprehensive...
, the brothers Alexander
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
and Wilhelm von Humboldt
Wilhelm von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Humboldt was a German philosopher, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of Humboldt Universität. He is especially remembered as a linguist who made important contributions to the philosophy of language and to the theory and practice...
, the brothers Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel, Friedrich Tieck, Clemens Brentano
Clemens Brentano
Clemens Brentano, or Klemens Brentano was a German poet and novelist.-Overview:He was born in Ehrenbreitstein, near Koblenz, Germany. His sister was Bettina von Arnim, Goethe's correspondent. His father's family was of Italian descent. He studied in Halle and Jena, afterwards residing at...
, Voß
Vos
Vos or VOS may refer to:In computing:* Hitachi VOS, a mainframe computer operating system by Hitachi Data Systems* Stratus VOS, a fault-tolerant computer operating system, developed by Stratus...
, Paulus
Paulus
- Roman and Byzantine empire :*Paul or Julius Paulus , Roman jurist*Paulus Catena , Roman notary*Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus , Roman general*Paulus , short-time ruler over the Domain of Soissons...
, Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer
Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer
Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer was a German theologian, religious philosopher and Protestant education reformer who was a native of Württemberg....
, Zacharias Werner and others. Goethe mainly met her in the house of the publisher Carl Friedrich Ernst Frommann
Carl Friedrich Ernst Frommann
Carl Friedrich Ernst Frommann was a German bookseller and publisher in Jena, active in the circles of Weimar Classicism and a friend and patron of Goethe, Minna Herzlieb and Louise Seidler....
, and began to become highly interested in her.
Marriage
On 14 October 1806 the French won the battle of Jena and in 1806 and 1807 occupied Jena, exposing its inhabitants to troop billeting and plunder. During this time Louise fell in love with and married the physician Geoffroy, in the corps of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. On orders received before his wedding he was then posted to Spain, where he soon afterwards died of fever in a military hospital. Her parents then sent the widowed Louise to DresdenDresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
to divert her from her mourning and scatter her gloomy thoughts.
Early painting career
Visiting the Dresdner KunstgalerieGemäldegalerie Alte Meister
The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden features major works of art. It is located in the gallery wing of the Zwinger....
, which had also impressed Goethe, she decided to become a painter and progressed fast, having become a pupil of the painter and teacher Christian Leberecht Vogel
Christian Leberecht Vogel
Christian Leberecht Vogel was a German painter, draughtsman and writer on art theory. His pupils included Louise Seidler, and he was the father of the court painter and art professor Carl Christian Vogel....
, who taught her for free. Goethe stayed in Dresden for 10 days on his trip back from Karlsbad
Karlovy Vary
Karlovy Vary is a spa city situated in western Bohemia, Czech Republic, on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá, approximately west of Prague . It is named after King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who founded the city in 1370...
, and was so pleased with Louise's copy of Carlo Dolce's "Saint Cecilia" that he invited her to Weimar, where she painted his portrait. Until her mother's death on 23 September 1814 she spent the winter months in Weimar and Jena and the summer months in Dresden, undergoing further training with the painter Gerhard von Kügelgen
Gerhard von Kügelgen
Franz Gerhard von Kügelgen was a German painter, noted for his portraits and history paintings. He was a professor at the Academy of Arts in Dresden and a member of both the Prussian and Russian Academies of Arts. His twin brother, Karl von Kügelgen, was also a painter of note.Gerhard von Kügelgen...
. In winter 1811 she was invited to Gotha by duke Augustus to paint him, his second wife Karoline Amalie and Princess Louise (his daughter by his first marriage). Further work there followed on later stays. Her mother's death on 23 September 1814 marked a break in her life, since she returned to her father in Jena as head of the household, though she still saw success in her artistic work.
Rochuskapelle in Bingen
In 1816 Louise completed an altarpiece of "Saint Roch", on designs by Heinrich Meyer for the RochuskapelleRochuskapelle (Bingen)
The Rochuskapelle is a German pilgrimage chapel to Saint Roch on the Rochusberg southeast of Bingen am Rhein.-History:The first building, dating to the plague year of 1666, was destroyed during the campaigns of 1795 in the French Revolutionary Wars of the Rhine valley...
in Bingen
Bingen am Rhein
Bingen am Rhein is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.The settlement’s original name was Bingium, a Celtic word that may have meant “hole in the rock”, a description of the shoal behind the Mäuseturm, known as the Binger Loch. Bingen was the starting point for the...
, that he had described in 1814 as "On the Rhine, Main and Neckar". This chapel had been rebuilt from ruins and was rededicated on 16 August 1814 (St Roch's feast day), with Goethe participating in the ceremonies. The altarpiece began a correspondence between him and Louise, in which he expressed his happiness in the work.
Munich (1817-18)
Thanks to Goethe she received a one-year scholarship of 400 TalerThaler
The Thaler was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in various currencies as the dollar or tolar. Etymologically, "Thaler" is an abbreviation of "Joachimsthaler", a coin type from the city of Joachimsthal in Bohemia, where some of the first such...
from duke Charles Augustus to go to Munich for a year's further training in painting. On 4 July 1817 she travelled to Munich and, with letters of recommendation from Goethe, was welcomed into the house of the philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi was an influential German philosopher, literary figure, socialite and the younger brother of poet Johann Georg Jacobi...
. In Munich she again met her friend Pauline Gotter, who in 1812 had married the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, and in her house met the Swedish poet Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom
Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom
Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom was a Swedish romantic poet, and a member of the Swedish Academy....
. Previously under the influence of the academy director Langer, Louise's painting style now became more independent as she moved from copying others' artworks to studying nature (which she had previously neglected). Even so, she still copied Raphael's "Portrait of Bindo Altoviti
Portrait of Bindo Altoviti (Raphael)
The Portrait of Bindo Altoviti is a painting finished around 1515 by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael. It is housed in the National Gallery of Art of Washington, D.C., United States....
" in Munich for the Duke and produced a drawing of the friezes of Leo von Klenze
Leo von Klenze
Leo von Klenze was a German neoclassicist architect, painter and writer...
's Apollotempel at the Nymphenburg Palace
Nymphenburg Palace
The Nymphenburg Palace , i.e. "Nymph's Castle", is a Baroque palace in Munich, Bavaria, southern Germany. The palace was the main summer residence of the rulers of Bavaria.-History:...
for Goethe. The duke then granted her request for a further scholarship in Italy, again of 400 Taler.
Italy (1818-23)
On 20 September 1818 Louise set out on her trip to Italy, arriving in Rome the following 30 October. She lived in the artistic circle of the city (usually based on the Pincian HillPincian Hill
The Pincian Hill is a hill in the northeast quadrant of the historical center of Rome. The hill lies to the north of the Quirinal, overlooking the Campus Martius...
), also frequented by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld was a German painter.-Biography:Schnorr was born at Leipzig, where he received his earliest instruction from his father Johann Veit Schnorr , a draughtsman, engraver and painter...
and the brothers Johann and Philipp Veit
Philipp Veit
Philipp Veit was a German Romantic painter. To Veit is due the credit of having been the first to revive the almost forgotten technique of fresco painting.- Biography :Veit was born in Berlin, Prussia...
. In the German colony of painters and sculptors she found a way in to the artistic and social life of the city and its expatriates. She was welcomed into the houses of Barthold Georg Niebuhr
Barthold Georg Niebuhr
Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a Danish-German statesman and historian who became Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome and a founding father of modern scholarly historiography. Classical Rome caught the admiration of German thinkers...
(Prussian envoy to the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
) and of the wife of Wilhelm von Humboldt
Wilhelm von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Humboldt was a German philosopher, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of Humboldt Universität. He is especially remembered as a linguist who made important contributions to the philosophy of language and to the theory and practice...
.
In spring 1819 she spent many months in Naples and in autumn 1820 in Florence, in order to copy Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
's "Madonna del Granduca
Madonna del Granduca
The Madonna del Granduca is a Madonna painting by the Italian renaissance artist Raphael. It was probably painted in 1505, shortly after Raphael had arrived in Florence. The influence of Leonardo da Vinci, whose works he got to know there, can be seen in the use of sfumato...
" and "Madonna del cardellino
Madonna del cardellino
The Madonna del cardellino or Madonna of the Goldfinch is a painting by the Italian renaissance artist Raphael, from c. 1505-1506. A 10-year restoration process was completed in 2008, after which the painting was returned to its home at the Uffizi in Florence...
" (both in the Uffizi
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery , is a museum in Florence, Italy. It is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world.-History:...
) for grand-duke Charles Augustus. The painter Friedrich Preller
Friedrich Preller the Elder
Friedrich Preller the Elder was a German landscape painter and etcher. From 1832 he was a professor at the Fürstlichen freien Zeichenschule in Weimar. He was the father of the artist Friedrich Preller the Younger.-Life:He was born at Eisenach...
was so impressd by her copies that he called them "the best known copies I know". A further copy, of "The Tempi Madonna
Tempi Madonna (Raphael)
The Tempi Madonna is an oil painting by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael. Painted for the Tempi family, it was bought by Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1829. It is housed in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. It is thought to have been made in 1508, at the end of the artist's Florentine period....
", was bought by king Louis I of Bavaria in 1826 for the Pinakothek
Alte Pinakothek
The Alte Pinakothek is an art museum situated in the Kunstareal in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses one of the most famous collections of Old Master paintings...
in Munich. In late autumn 1821 she left Florence for Rome.
In April and May 1822 she copied "The Violin Players", with the copy later a part of the collection at the Schloss Sanssouci in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
. At the same time she began her own painting "Saint Elizabeth handing out alms". In reports Louise called her time in Italy the happiest of her life, but this period came to a sudden end when in 1823 she received news that her father had fallen seriously ill and she had to return to Germany.
Return to Weimar
Only on her return to Weimar did she find time to complete her work "Saint Elizabeth handing out alms". On the recommendation of Goethe and Johann Heinrich MeyerJohann Heinrich Meyer
Johann Heinrich Meyer was a Swiss painter and art writer active in Weimar. A pupil of Henry Fuseli, he went to Rome in 1784, and befriended Goethe in 1787, becoming his right-hand-man in artistic matters...
duke Charles Augustus put her in charge of the education of his daughter Maria and Augusta. On her father's death she was able to return to Italy, but was prevented from doing so when in 1824 Charles Augustus made her custodian of the grand-ducal art collection in Weimar's Grossen Jägerhaus. Except for a few journeys Louise remained in Weimar and was highly appreciated in society circles. She led a lively correspondence with personalities such as Philipp Veit
Philipp Veit
Philipp Veit was a German Romantic painter. To Veit is due the credit of having been the first to revive the almost forgotten technique of fresco painting.- Biography :Veit was born in Berlin, Prussia...
and his wife Karoline and wife Dorothea Schlegel, among others. It was mainly due to her that Herr von Quandt created the Saxonian Art Association and that Goethe gave that association his active support. Right up to his death in 1832 Goethe was grateful to Louise for her promotion of his career (and vice versa) and his death put her into deep mourning.
With Mrs von Bardeleben, in autumn 1832, she went on a second trip to Italy, lasting just over a year. Above all she maintained her relations with the painter Friedrich Preller, who inspired her to paint religious and devotional paintings, which diverted her from artistic work after her return from Italy, with her increasing blindness towards the end of her life also preventing the completion of many works.
Literary work
Before her death she wrote her autobiography "Erinnerungen aus dem Leben der Malerin Louise Seidler" (Memories from the Life of the Painter Louise Seidler), published by Hermann Uhde in 1873 and which is still one of the most important art historical sources for the time.Copies
- the Saint Cecilia by Carlo Dolce
- Portrait of Bindo AltovitiPortrait of Bindo Altoviti (Raphael)The Portrait of Bindo Altoviti is a painting finished around 1515 by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael. It is housed in the National Gallery of Art of Washington, D.C., United States....
, 1818 - The Madonna del Gran DucaMadonna del GranducaThe Madonna del Granduca is a Madonna painting by the Italian renaissance artist Raphael. It was probably painted in 1505, shortly after Raphael had arrived in Florence. The influence of Leonardo da Vinci, whose works he got to know there, can be seen in the use of sfumato...
, 1820 - The Madonna with the GoldfinchMadonna del cardellinoThe Madonna del cardellino or Madonna of the Goldfinch is a painting by the Italian renaissance artist Raphael, from c. 1505-1506. A 10-year restoration process was completed in 2008, after which the painting was returned to its home at the Uffizi in Florence...
, 1820 - The Madonna TempiTempi Madonna (Raphael)The Tempi Madonna is an oil painting by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael. Painted for the Tempi family, it was bought by Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1829. It is housed in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. It is thought to have been made in 1508, at the end of the artist's Florentine period....
, 1821 - The Violin Players, 1822
Portrait
- Duke Augustus and family, 1811
- Goethe, 1811
- Wilhelmine HerzliebMinna HerzliebChristiane Friederike Wilhelmine "Minna " Herzlieb was a German female publisher, and a publisher of Karl Ernst Friedrich Frommann .-Life:...
Other
- Altarpiece of the Heiligen Rochus, 1816
- Pastel drawing of Sylvie von Ziegesar
- Drawing of the friezes at the Apollotempel, 1818
- Saint Elisabeth handing out alms, 1823