Hermann Friedhold Plüddemann (17 July 1809, Kolberg - 24 June 1868,

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

) was a German

history painter History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek mythology, Greek and Roman my ...

and illustrator.

Life and work

His father was a prosperous merchant and shipowner. He initially studied with

Carl Sieg Carl Sieg (4 August 1784 – 13 April 1845, in Magdeburg) was a German portrait painter and lithographer. Life and work Born in Magdeburg, the son of bookbinder Friedrich Christian Sieg, he studied painting at the Academy of Arts, Berlin, Acade ...

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

then, in 1828, he entered the studios of

Carl Joseph Begas Carl Joseph Begas, or Karl Begas, (30 September 1794, Heinsberg – 24 November 1854, Berlin) was a German painter who played an important role in the transition from Romanticism to Realism (arts), Realism. He was the first in a multi-generation ...

in Berlin. Three years later, he enrolled at the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Blinky Palermo, Ma ...

, where he worked with Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow. Together with Heinrich Mücke, he completed a number of

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es for Count at Heltorf Castle, including a monumental representation of the Battle of Iconium; from sketches by

Karl Friedrich Lessing Karl Friedrich Lessing, also known by Carl Friedrich Lessing (15 February 1808 – 4 January 1880), was a German historical and landscape painter, grandnephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and one of the main exponents of the Düsseldorf school o ...

. In 1843, together with Mücke, Lorenz Clasen and Joseph Fay, he was chosen to create frescoes depicting the early history of the Germans, up to the

Battle of the Teutoburg Forest The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, also called the Varus Disaster or Varian Disaster () by Ancient Rome, Roman historians, was a major battle fought between an alliance of Germanic peoples and the Roman Empire between September 8 and 11, 9&nbs ...

, at the . He moved to

in 1848, to become a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts. From 1852 to 1856, he was almost exclusively occupied in creating illustrations for a book of German ballads by , and ''German History in Pictures'', published by . He was best known for his series of paintings depicting the lives of

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

and

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (; ), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death in 1190. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March 115 ...

. Much of his work was lost during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Selected illustrations

* '' Album deutscher Künstler in Originalradirungen.'' - Düsseldorf : Buddeus, 1841.
Online
* ''Deutsche Dichtungen mit Randzeichnungen deutscher Künstler.'' - Düsseldorf : Buddeus, (Vols.1–2) 1843.
Online
* Reumont, Alfred von. ''Sagas légendes des bords du Rhin : orné de 8 gravures sur acier.'' - Aix-la-Chapelle: Kohnen, 1838.
Online
* Kugler, Franz. ''Skizzenbuch.'' - Berlin : Reimer, 1830.
Online

Sources

* * Arthur Schulz: "Hermann Freihold Plüddemann (1809–1868)". In: Martin Wehrmann, Adolf Hofmeister, Wilhelm Braun (Eds.): ''Pommersche Lebensbilder'', Vol.2: Pommern des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, Stettin 1936, pp. 85–92 * Ekkehard Mai: ''Hermann Freihold Plüddemann. Maler und Illustrator zwischen Spätromantik und Historismus (1809–1868). Ein Werkverzeichnis'', Böhlau, Köln 2004,

In: ''

Meyers Konversations-Lexikon or was a major encyclopedia in the German language that existed in various editions, and by several titles, from 1839 to 1984, when it merged with the . Joseph Meyer (publisher), Joseph Meyer (1796–1856), who had founded the publishing hous ...

'' 1885–1892, Vol.13, pg.138 * Odila Schütz: "Herrmann Freihold Plüddemann 1809–1868", In: ''Sächsische Heimatblätter'', Jahrgang 1999, Vol.1, pp. 34–40

External links

Biography of Plüddemann
@ Kulturstiftung {{DEFAULTSORT:Ploddemann, Hermann 1809 births 1868 deaths 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters People from Kołobrzeg Painters from the Kingdom of Prussia