Johann Heinrich Tischbein

Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder, called the Kasseler, (October 3, 1722 in Haina – August 22, 1789 in Kassel), was one of the most respected European painters in the 18th century and an important member of the Tischbein dynasty of German painters, which spanned four generations.

His work consisted primarily of portraits of the nobility, mythology scenes, and historical paintings. For his mythology paintings he mostly resorted to models of the highest aristocracy.

Life

Tischbein was the founder and a painting teacher at the Kasseler Kunstakademie.

Works

• Resurrection (1763), altarpiece for the Hauptkirche Sankt Michaelis (Hamburg), burned in 1906
• Transfiguration (1765), Lutherische Kirche in Kassel
• Passion and Ascension cycle (1778) for the St. Elisabeth Catholic Church in Kassel, now in the Dommuseum Fulda
• Kreuzabnahme und Himmelfahrt (1787), altarpiece for the St.-Jakobi-Kirche (Stralsund)
• Christ on the Mount of Olives (1788), Kloster Haina
• Allegory on the Founding of the Kasseler Akademie
• Hercules and Omphale
• May Day at Gut Freienhagen

Portraits

• Self portrait with his first wife
• The actress Evérard
• The poet Philippine Engelhard nee Gatterer^[1]
• Landgraf Friederick II

References

1. ^ This portrait is noted in a letter by Caroline Michaelis of 8 September 1780 :...Tischbein has painted her as a muse in a sky blue robe, playing on the lyre, with a laurel crown and roses in her hair... She's not beautiful, but the portrait should be pretty similar...(in: Caroline. Briefe aus der Frühromantik, Band 1, 1913, Reprint 1970, Nr.18). Philippine Gatterer thanked him for it with a poem : "An den Herrn Rath Tischbein in Cassel. Als ihr Bildniß in Göttingen ankam. Den 5. August 1780."( in: Philippine Engelhard. Ausgewählte Gedichte, Nr.43, Würzburg 2008)