August Wilhelm Leu (24 March 1818 – 20 July 1897) was a German landscape painter of the Romantic school. Most of his pictures are large-format and depict scenes in Norway and the Alps.

Biography

Leu was born in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

. He was a pupil of

Johann Wilhelm Schirmer Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (5 September 1807 in Jülich – 11 September 1863 in Karlsruhe) was a German landscape artist born in Jülich, within the Prussian Duchy of Jülich. Biography Schirmer was started as a student of historical paint ...

, a landscape painter of the

Düsseldorf school Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

.A. Hk., "Leu, August Wilhelm", ''

Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon ''Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon'' is a Danish encyclopedia that has been published in several editions. The first edition, ''Salmonsens Store Illustrerede Konversationsleksikon'' was published in nineteen volumes 1893–1911 by Brødrene Sa ...

'', 2nd ed. (1915–30), Volume XV: ''Kvadratrod – Ludmila'', p. 724
online
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.''

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 (1796–1856), who had founded the publishing house in 1826, intended t ...

'', 6th ed. (1902–13), Volume 12: ''L – Lyra''
pp. 456–57
. Leu travelled in Norway in 1843 and 1847, and later travelled widely in the Alps. His Norwegian paintings raised awareness in Germany of that country's scenery. He lived for a time in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, then returned to Düsseldorf; in 1855 he received an honourable mention at the Paris Exposition. In 1882 he moved to Berlin, where he became a royal professor and a member of the Academy of Art; he was also a member of the

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and Brussels Academies."Leu, August (Wilhelm)", ''Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings'', ed. John Denison Champlin, Jr. and Charles C. Perkins, (1913 ed.), New York: Scribner's, , Volume 3
p. 72
Clara Erskine Clement Waters and Laurence Hutton, ''Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works: A Handbook Containing Two Thousand and Fifty Biographical Sketches'', 5th ed. Boston: Osgood, 1889,
p. 63
He received several gold medals in Berlin and was awarded the Belgian Order of Leopold. His son, also named August Leu (1852–76) studied under him and was a landscape and animal painter. Leu died in

Seelisberg Seelisberg is a municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland. History The Rütli meadow, according to legend the site of the original oath foundational to the Old Swiss Confederacy, is situated in the territory of the municipality. The Seel ...

, Switzerland.

Selected works

* '' Hardangerfjord im Sonnenlicht (1849), Kunstverein Bremen (1849), now Private Collection in Norway * ''Norwegian Landscape with Waterfall'' (1849) * ''Sognefjord'' (1849) * ''Hohe Göll at Berchtesgaden'' (1859) * ''Oeschinen Lake'' (1876) * ''Queen Joanne's Palace at Naples'' (1886) * ''Pool at Blankenburg in the Harz Mountains'' (1888) * ''On the Engstlenalp'' (1893) * ''Königsee and Watzmann'' * ''Norwegian High Plateau'' * ''Sunset on the Coast at Sorrento'' File:August Wilhelm Leu - Alpiner Berggipfel (1896).jpg, ''Alpine Peak'' (1896) File:August Wilhelm Leu - Blick von der Wengerenalp auf Eiger und Mönch (1865).jpg, ''View of the Eiger and the Mönch from the Wengerenalp'' (1865) File:August Wilhelm Leu - Fjordlandschaft mit Gletscher und Rentieren (1896).jpg, ''Fjord Landscape with Glacier and Reindeer'' (1896) File:August Wilhelm Leu - Norwegische Fjordlandschaft (1849).jpg, ''Norwegian Fjord Landscape'' (1849) File:August Wilhelm Leu Matterhorn.jpg, ''Matterhorn''

References

External links

*
August Wilhelm Leu
at Van Ham auction house,

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

August Wilhelm Leu
at Christie's auction house, London and New York {{DEFAULTSORT:Leu, August Wilhelm 1818 births 1897 deaths 19th-century German painters German male painters German landscape painters Artists from Münster 19th-century German male artists