Christian Griepenkerl (17 March 1839 – 22 March 1916) was a German painter and professor at the

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. History The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...

Biography

Griepenkerl was born to one of Oldenburg's leading families. As a young man, he heeded the advice of his fellow countryman, the landscapist Ernst Willers, and went to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in late 1855 in order to enroll at the private art school for monumental paintings founded four years earlier by Carl Rahl. Rahl allowed several of his students to participate in drafting and carrying out his paintings and thereby shaped their individual artistic development. Griepenkerl's first painting – '' Œdipus, Led by

Antigone In Greek mythology, Antigone ( ; Ancient Greek: Ἀντιγόνη) is the daughter of Oedipus and either his mother Jocasta or, in another variation of the myth, Euryganeia. She is a sister of Polynices, Eteocles, and Ismene.Roman, L., ...

'' – received Rahl's approval, and he was thereafter involved with Rahl and other students in painting

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' 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 plast ...

s in the grand staircase of the Museum of Weapons (today's Heeresgeschichtliches Museum), in the

Palais Todesco ''Palais Todesco'' is a '' Ringstraßenpalais'' in Vienna, Austria, constructed from 1861 to 1864 on plans by architect Theophil Hansen. It was built for the aristocratic family. One of the inhabitants was Baroness Sophie von Todesco, who est ...

, and in the city palace of Simon Sinas. After Rahl's death in 1865, he individually continued and completed the master's unfinished commissions. Griepenkerl-Faistauer

In 1874, Griepenkerl was appointed a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where starting in 1877 he headed a special school for historical painting. His specialty was the allegorical representation using themes from classical mythology and portraiture. Griepenkerl thereby taught an entire generation of Viennese painters. Among his most famous students are

Carl Moll Carl Julius Rudolf Moll (23 April 1861 – 13 April 1945) was a prominent art nouveau painter active in Vienna at the start of the 20th century. He was one of the artists of the Vienna Secession who took inspiration from the pointillist techniq ...

(1880–81), Alfred Roller, Jacques Bunimowitsch,

Max Kurzweil Maximilian Franz Viktor Zdenko Marie Kurzweil (12 October 1867, Bisenz – 9 May 1916, Vienna) was an Austrian painter and printmaker. He moved near Vienna in 1879. Maximillian or Max Kurzweil studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna wit ...

, Carl Otto Czeschka (1894–99), Richard Gerstl (1898–99),

Egon Schiele Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (; 12 June 1890 – 31 October 1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude self-portrai ...

(1906–08), Anton Faistauer (1906–09), Richard Geiger, and Uroš Predić. His "antiquated views" led to repeated protests on the part of his students and later even to withdrawals, leading among other things to the founding of the New Art Group. Griepenkerl also became famous posthumously for having rejected

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

's application to train at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In 1907, when Hitler was provisionally admitted to prepare a sample drawing, Griepenkerl disapprovingly noted, "Sample drawing unsatisfactory. Too few heads." And in 1908, his verdict was even clearer: "Not admitted."Brigitte Hamann, ''Hitler's Vienna. A Dictator's Apprenticeship''. Oxford University Press, 1999.

Works

A larger collection are Rahl's compositions which Griepenkerl carried out with the help of

Eduard Bitterlich Eduard Bitterlich (17 August 1833, Stupnicka, or Dubliany, Galicia, now Ukraine - 20 May 1872, Pfalzau, now part of Pressbaum), was an Austrian artist. Life Bitterlich was born in Galicia where his father had established himself. While he was ...

in the new municipal opera house. They worked for four years on the ceiling of the auditorium and on the drop curtain of the tragical opera. It was only after the death of Rahl in 1865 that Griepenkerl took on his own monumental assignments. The

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Hansen employed him to decorate the Palace Ephrussi and Palace Epstein, Franz Klein hired Griepenkerl for the castle of Hornstein and for the palace of Sina in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. There he made the ceiling fresco ''

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as ...

's Wedding Procession'', ''Demons of the Storm'', and ''Protective Ghosts of the Sea'', which are of noble form and very graceful, but have some insufficiencies concerning the clothing and the illumination. Of the same importance are the wall paintings in the mansion of the

grand duchess Grand duke (feminine: grand duchess) is a European hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families. In status, a grand duke traditionally ranks in order of precedence below an emperor, as an approxi ...

of Tuscany in

Gmunden Gmunden () is a town in Upper Austria, Austria in the district of Gmunden. It has 13,204 inhabitants (estimates 2016 ). It is much frequented as a health and summer resort, and has a variety of lake, brine, vegetable and pine-cone baths, a hydrop ...

and his painting ''The Wedding of

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols incl ...

and

Adonis In Greek mythology, Adonis, ; derived from the Canaanite word ''ʼadōn'', meaning "lord". R. S. P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 23. was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite. One day, Adonis was gored by ...

'' in the dining hall of the Mansion Simon near

Hietzing Hietzing () is the 13th municipal District of Vienna (german: 13. Bezirk, Hietzing). It is located west of the central districts, west of Meidling. Hietzing is a heavily populated urban area with many residential buildings, but also contains lar ...

. Griepenkerl also made the decorative oil paintings (finished in 1878) in the stairway hall of the

Augusteum An Augusteum (plural ''Augustea'') was originally a site of imperial cult in ancient Roman religion, named after the imperial title of Augustus. It was known as a Sebasteion in the Greek East of the Roman Empire. Examples have been excavated in ...

in Oldenburg, on the ceiling depicting the Venus Urania as the ideal of all beauty, surrounded by four themes from the myth of

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning " forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, kn ...

; and on three walls (similar to the hémicycle of Paul Delaroche) is depicted an ideal gathering of the all-time heroes of art in historical sequence. It was followed by a cycle of paintings – once again employing themes from the Prometheus myth – that are distinguished by a great concept of forms and a swinging composition, in the conference hall of the new

Academy of Sciences An academy of sciences is a type of learned society or academy (as special scientific institution) dedicated to sciences that may or may not be state funded. Some state funded academies are tuned into national or royal (in case of the Unit ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

Honours and awards

* 1878: House and Merit Order of Peter Frederick Louis (Oldenburg) * 1887:

Order of the Iron Crown (Austria) The Imperial Order of the Iron Crown (german: Kaiserlicher Orden der Eisernen Krone; it, Ordine imperiale della Corona ferrea) was one of the highest orders of merit in the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary until 1918. It was founded in 1815 b ...

* 1912: Honorary grave at Vienna's Central Cemetery (''Zentralfriedhof'') * 1924: the street Griepenkerlgasse in Hietzing district, Vienna was named after him

Literature

Thieme-Becker Thieme-Becker is a German biographical dictionary of artists. Thieme-Becker The dictionary was begun under the editorship of Ulrich Thieme (1865–1922) (volumes one to fifteen) and Felix Becker (1864–1928) (volumes one to four). It was complet ...

Vol. 15, 1922, page 22. *

References

External links

Entry for Christian Griepenkerl
on the

Union List of Artist Names The Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) is a free online database of the Getty Research Institute using a controlled vocabulary Control may refer to: Basic meanings Economics and business * Control (management), an element of management * Cont ...