Anton von Werner

Biography

Werner was born in Frankfurt (Oder) in the Prussian Province of Brandenburg, the son of a carpenter. His family originally came from East Prussia and was ennobled (von) in 1701. He began an apprenticeship as a decorative painter in 1857 and from 1860 onwards studied painting at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. One year later, he pursued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, where he studied with Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, Ludwig des Coudres, Adolf Schroedter, and Karl Friedrich Lessing.

In Karlsruhe, Werner met with artists like Eduard Devrient, Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann, Paul Heyse, and the Norwegian painter Hans Gude. The author Joseph Victor von Scheffel, who became a close friend, introduced him to Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden, and Werner illustrated several printed editions of Scheffel's works. Werner visited Paris in 1865 and again from March 1867 to July 1868, preparing the International Exposition of 1867. He was strongly influenced by the history paintings of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, Ernest Meissonier, and Léon Cogniet whom he also met personally. Having obtained a travelling scholarship upon the exhibition of his early works at the International Exposition, he moved to Italy in 1868 and stayed with Anselm Feuerbach in Rome until November 1869. On his return to Baden, he received several state commissions. This work in turn cites:

• Kunst für Alle, vol. i
• Knackfuss, Künstler-Monographieen, No. 9

Upon the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, Werner was sent with the staff of the 3rd Corps d'Armée under the command of Prince Frederick William of Prussia in October 1870. In January 1871, he was summoned to the Prussian headquarters in Versailles and commissioned to immortalize the proclamation of the German Empire at the Hall of Mirrors. This painting marked Werner's final breakthrough, he became acquainted with numerous German federal princes he portrayed, met with Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke, as well as with Emperor Wilhelm I. Afterwards he returned to Berlin, now the German capital, and married Malwine Schroedter, daughter of his tutor Adolf Schroedter in August 1871.

In Berlin, Werner designed a large velarium stretching over the Unter den Linden boulevard at the triumphant arrival of the victorious German troops. He received further public commissions to create the mural decorations in the portico of the Victory Column, whereby he used his velarium as a cartoon for an innovative stained glass mosaic. He continued to commemorate the Franco-Prussian War in several commissioned paintings.

In 1873 Werner was appointed professor at the Berlin Academy. His career reached its peak when he became, in 1875, director of the Academy. After 1888, while in William II's court, Werner tutored the emperor to become a painter. In 1909, he succeeded Hugo von Tschudi in directing the Nationalgalerie in Berlin. He died in Berlin in 1915 and was interred at the Alter Zwölf-Apostel-Kirchhof in the Schöneberg neighborhood of Berlin.

Works

Werner's more important works include The Capitulation of Sedan, Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles, Moltke before Paris, Moltke at Versailles, The Meeting of Bismarck and Napoleon III, Christ and the Tribute Money, William I Visiting the Tombs, The Congress of Berlin, and some decorations executed in mosaic for the Berlin Victory Column. Werner's work is chiefly interesting for the historic value of his pictures of the events of the Franco-Prussian War.

Werner was good friends with Norwegian painter Hans Gude whom he met at the Karlsruhe school, and whom he would later work with at the Berlin Academy. Gude wrote of Werner in 1873,

File:1877 Werner Ankunft Wilhem I in Saarbruecken anagoria.JPG|The Arrival of King Wilhelm I in Saarbrücken (1877) File:Sturm auf den Spicherer Berg (1880) Anton von Werner.jpg|Sturm auf den Spicherer Berg (1880) File:Congress of Berlin, 13 July 1878, by Anton von Werner.jpg|Congress of Berlin (1881) File:Anton von Werner - Kriegsgefangen Jouy-aux-Arches - BG-M 0162^77 - Berlinische Galerie.jpg|Kriegsgefangen Jouy-aux-Arches, (1886) Image:German crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm contemplating the corpse of French general Abel Douay, Franco-Prussian War, 1870.jpg|Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm Contemplating the Corpse of French General Abel Douay (1888) File:Anton von Werner - Im Etappenquartier vor Paris - Google Art Project.jpg|A Billet Outside Paris (1894) File:Werner_Enthüllung_Wagner-Denkmal_1908.jpg|Unveiling of the Richard Wagner Monument in the Tiergarten (1908) File:Anton von Werner - Mann mit Zeitung, 1893.jpg|Man with a Newspaper (1893) File:Лютер в Вормсе.jpg|Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms (1877) File:Die Eröffnung des Reichstags - Werner.jpg|Eröffnung des Reichstages, 1888 in Weißen Saal, Berlin Palace, 1893

Other well-known works

• 1864 Kinderkopf im Profil (Child's Head in Profile)
• 1867 Kauernder Jüngling (Crouching Boy)
• 1872 Allegorie auf die Entstehung der deutschen Einheit (study for a mosaic at the Siegessäule in Berlin)
• 1873 Husar und älterer Offizier (Hussar and An Older Officer)
• 1877 Die Proklamation des Deutschen Kaiserreiches (The Proclamation of the German Empire). Destroyed in World War II; another version was painted in 1885
• 1879 Taufe in meinem Hause (Baptism in My House)
• 1881 Wilhelm I of Prussia at the sarcophagus of his mother Queen Louise in the Charlottenburg Mausoleum (19 July 1870)
• 1883 Sedan Panorama
• 1886 Kaiserin Gigi

Protégés and students

One of his students at the Prussian Academy of Arts was Emil Fuchs; another was August von Brandis; also Jacques Bunimowitsch.

References

References

1. "Biographie: Anton von Werner, 1843-1915".
2. "Anton von Werner".
3. Fulbrook, Mary and John Breuilly (1997) ''German History Since 1800'' "Oxford University Press US". 640 p. {{ISBN. 0-340-69200-6.
4. Malyon, John. ''[http://www.safran-arts.com/42day/art/art4may/art0509.html ART / 4 / 2Day]'' "Estate of Bernard Safran". accessed on 2 May 2006.
5. Haverkamp, Frode. "Hans Fredrik Gude: From National Romanticism to Realism in Landscape".
6. [http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/emil-fuchs-1130 Quoted on Tate website:] Ronald Alley, ''Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art Other Than Works by British Artists'', Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London, 1981, pp. 227–8