Bernhard Plockhorst
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Bernhard Plockhorst (March 2, 1825 – May 18, 1907) was a German painter and graphic artist. In Germany, Plockhorst is mainly known to experts today, whereas his pictures are still very popular in the United States and their reproductions can be found in many American homes and churches.


Life

Plockhorst was born in
Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...
, Germany, where he had a 5-year education in lithography at the Collegium Carolinum, after which he trained to be a painter with
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (26 March 1794 – 24 May 1872) () was a German painter, chiefly of Biblical subjects. As a young man he associated with the painters of the Nazarene movement who revived the florid Renaissance style in religious ar ...
in
Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
in 1848, with
Carl von Piloty Karl Theodor von Piloty (1 October 1826 – 21 July 1886) was a German painter, noted for his historical subjects, and recognised as the foremost representative of the realistic school in Germany. Life and work Piloty was born in Munich. His fat ...
in
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
and
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, and finally with
Thomas Couture Thomas Couture (21 December 1815 – 30 March 1879) was a French history painter and teacher. He taught such later luminaries of the art world as Édouard Manet, Henri Fantin-Latour, John La Farge,Wilkinson, Burke. ''The Life and Works of A ...
in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
in 1853. In Munich Plockhorst copied the paintings of
Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...
and
Tizian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian ( Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, ne ...
in the Old Pinakothek. He also took study travels to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy before settling in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
where he began to paint portraits, but he also proved his talent for religious themes with a large painting (“Mary and John returning from the grave of Christ”). From 1866 to 1869 he was a professor at the Grandducal Saxonian Art School (Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstschule) in
Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
, where painter
Otto Piltz Otto Piltz (28 June 1846, Allstedt - 20 August 1910, Pasing) was a German genre painter and illustrator for ''Die Gartenlaube''. Life He was the son of a soap-maker. After an apprenticeship as a decorative painter in Halle, he studied at the ...
was one of his pupils. Then Plockhorst returned to Berlin where he died in 1907.


Work

Plockhorst was a member of the late
Nazarene movement The epithet Nazarene was adopted by a group of early 19th-century German Romantic painters who aimed to revive spirituality in art. The name Nazarene came from a term of derision used against them for their affectation of a biblical manner of c ...
, a German Romantic art school (together with other German Protestant painters such as Karl Gottfried Pfannschmidt and Heinrich Ferdinand Hoffmann). Influenced by the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...
, they had recourse to Medieval and religious art topics.


Religious topics

In 1872, Plockhorst exhibited a painting which was soon regarded as his chief work, “The Battle of archangel Michael with Satan for the body of Moses” (today in the Städtisches Museum,
Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
). His next major work was the altar painting “The Resurrection of Christ” for the cathedral of Marienburg, painted by order of the Prussian ministry of education and cultural affairs. Further paintings showed “Christ taking his leave of his Mother”, “Christ on his way to Emmaus”, “Christ appearing to Maria Magdalena”, “The exposure of Moses”, “The finding of Moses”, “Let the children come to me” (also called “Jesus blessing the children”), “
Luther Luther may refer to: People * Martin Luther (1483–1546), German monk credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation * Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American minister and leader in the American civil rights movement * Luther (give ...
on Christmas Eve” (1887) and “The adulteress before Christ” (the latter formerly in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, gallery Löwenstein). Plockhorst's painting '' The Guardian Angel'' (1886), showing an angel and two little children close to an abyss, was reproduced as a color lithography in thousands of copies and greatly influenced the later pictures of guardian angels. The glass windows of several U.S. American churches show motifs taken from Plockhorst, e. g. "The Good Shepherd" in the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Paul in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, Alabama, “
The Nativity The nativity of Jesus, nativity of Christ, birth of Jesus or birth of Christ is described in the biblical gospels of Luke and Matthew. The two accounts agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judaea, his mother Mary was engaged to a man ...
” in the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in
Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
, Oklahoma; "The Good Shepherd" in First Presbyterian Church in
Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...
, Oklahoma; “Moses presents the Ten Commandments to
Aaron According to Abrahamic religions, Aaron ''′aharon'', ar, هارون, Hārūn, Greek (Septuagint): Ἀαρών; often called Aaron the priest ()., group="note" ( or ; ''’Ahărōn'') was a prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of ...
on the
mount Sinai Mount Sinai ( he , הר סיני ''Har Sinai''; Aramaic: ܛܘܪܐ ܕܣܝܢܝ ''Ṭūrāʾ Dsyny''), traditionally known as Jabal Musa ( ar, جَبَل مُوسَىٰ, translation: Mount Moses), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is ...
” in the First Congregational Church UCC,
Owosso Owosso may refer to a location in the United States: * Owosso, Michigan, a city in Shiawassee County * Owosso Township, Michigan, adjacent to the city {{Geodis ...
, Michigan; “The Good Shepherd” in the Zion Lutheran Church,
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, MD, and “
The Flight into Egypt The flight into Egypt is a story recounted in the Gospel of Matthew ( Matthew 2:13– 23) and in New Testament apocrypha. Soon after the visit by the Magi, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to flee to Egypt with Mary and the i ...
” in the
Stanford Memorial Church Stanford Memorial Church (also referred to informally as MemChu) is located on the Main Quad at the center of the Stanford University campus in Stanford, California, United States. It was built during the American RenaissanceGregg, p. 34 by ...
. Plockhorst's oil painting “ Noli me tangere”, which is more than two square meters large, had a remarkable fate. Originally, Plockhorst painted it for the German Court. Later, it was to be exhibited in England, but on September 3, 1880 the ship ''Sorata'', with the painting on board, was stranded on rocks between
Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
and
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, drawing water into its hold to a depth of 5.5 metres.Thomas N. Stephens, , Board of Trade, 17 January 1881, Marine Board Offices, Port Adelaide. Accessed 18 April 2013. Much of the cargo was salvageable, but the artwork was completely encrusted by a white layer. It looked as if the sea water had decomposed the color particles. In this condition Prof. Francis Rouleaux, director of the Royal Technical College of Charlottenburg (Berlin) and Commissioner General for the
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
,Professor Francis Rouleaux
, 18 October 1879, in ''
Australian Town and Country Journal Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...
'' p. 737. Accessed 18 April 2013.
took it to Melbourne, Australia. When the
Melbourne International Exhibition The Melbourne International Exhibition is the eighth World's fair officially recognised by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) and the first official World's Fair in the Southern Hemisphere. Preparations After being granted self-go ...
was prepared in 1880, the art dealer Alexander Fletcher (1837–1914) bought the painting for a trifling sum and took it to the restorer George Peacock. Peacock discovered that the white layer was just
plaster of Paris Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...
from the frame, which had been dissolved by the sea water. He could easily remove it, and Fletcher sold the restored painting to the
National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...
for a considerable sum. At that time, the three largest daily newspapers of Melbourne reported extensively on that clever move.Caroline Jordan, , in ''The La Trobe Journal'', State Library of Victoria, Australia, no. 75, Autumn 2005, pp.77-93, hosted at www.archive.org. Accessed 18 April 2013.


Portraits

Plockhorst painted a portrait of the musician
Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
(1857) and created portraits of other important people like the Leipzig publisher Tauchnitz, the Leipzig honorary citizen Carl Lampe,
David Hansemann David Justus Ludwig Hansemann (12 July 1790 – 4 August 1864) was a Prussian politician and banker, serving as the Prussian Minister of Finance in 1848. Life Hansemann was born in Finkenwerder, Hamburg, the son of a Protestant minister. Afte ...
and the children of the family Platzmann. Besides, he portrayed members of the German nobility like Emperor
Wilhelm I William I or Wilhelm I (german: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the f ...
and his wife Augusta (1888; today in Berlin, National Gallery).


Illustrations

For the books of the Tauchnitz publishing house, Plockhorst drew different title-pages and frontispieces, e.g. for ''Three tales for Girls'' by the British author Dinah Maria Mulock Craik and for Charlotte M. Yonge's book ''The little Duke or Richard the Fearless. Ben Sylvester’s Word'' (1861). His illustrations for the following two books became very successful, * ''From Bethlehem to Golgotha. The Life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ according to the four gospels'' by Karl Gerok (1881); * ''Psalter and harp. New jubilee edition'' by Philipp Spitta, including 24 full-page illustrations, the portrait of Spitta, further illustrations and 42 initials.


Gallery

File:The_Lord_is_my_Good_Shepherd.jpg, ''The Good Shepherd'', 19th century by German Artist Bernhard Plockhorst File:Jesus_Blessing_the_Children.jpg, ''Christ Blessing the Children'', 19th century by German Artist Bernhard Plockhorst File:Victory_over_the_Grave.jpg, ''Victor over the Grave'', 19th-century altarpiece by German Artist Bernhard Plockhorst File:TheConsolingChrist.jpg, ''The Consoling Christ'', 19th century by German Artist Bernhard Plockhorst


References


Written sources

* Article on Bernhard Plockhorst, in: Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon, vol. 13 (1895), p. 203. {{DEFAULTSORT:Plockhorst, Bernhard 1825 births 1907 deaths German romantic painters Artists from Braunschweig People from the Duchy of Brunswick 19th-century German painters German male painters 19th-century German male artists