Edmund Ludwig Eduard Wodick (21 November 1816, in Bebertal – 10 March 1886, in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...

) was a German painter of the Biedermeier period, known for landscapes, portraits and

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

scenes.

Biography

His father was a decorative painter who gave him his first lessons. After attending the Arts and Crafts school in Magdeburg, he was apprenticed to a

lithographer Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

. Before he had completed his training, the music publisher, Wilhelm von Heinrichshofen (1782-1881), a distant relative, helped him to enroll 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, Magdalena Jetelová ...

and study with

Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow (7 September 1789 – 19 March 1862) was a German Romantic painter. Biography He was born in Berlin, the second son of the sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow, who gave him his first lessons in drawing. He then turne ...

. He was there from 1837 to 1841.

Karl Ferdinand Sohn Karl Ferdinand Sohn (10 December 1805 in Berlin – 25 November 1867 in Cologne) was a German painter of the Düsseldorf school of painting. Biography He was born in Berlin and started his studies at the age of eighteen under Wilhelm von Scha ...

and Rudolf Wiegmann were also among his instructors. Following graduation, he embarked on the "

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tut ...

", beginning with Paris. While there, he took evening classes from

Paul Delaroche Hippolyte-Paul Delaroche (17 July 1797 – 4 November 1856) was a French painter who achieved his greater successes painting historical scenes. He became famous in Europe for his melodramatic depictions that often portrayed subjects from English ...

and made copies at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

. In 1842, he took part in an exhibition at the Salon. Following that, he visited Switzerland and Northern Italy, finally making his way to Rome, where he spent a year and a half, making sketches and studying the sculptures. He also worked as a portraitist, receiving orders from King Ludwwig I and Prince Henry of Prussia. After leaving Rome, he toured Spain and visited Morocco. While in Madrid, he became acquainted with

José de Madrazo José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...

, Director of the Museo del Prado. He returned to Magdeburg by way of France in 1846, married his childhood sweetheart, and opened a studio which became a meeting place for artists, writers and theatrical performers. His works from this period are largely Spanish and Orientalist in theme. Later, he established himself as a portrait painter. His sitters included many local businessmen, clergy and politicians as well as King (later, Kaiser)

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 ...

, although that portrait was lost and is now known only through a copper engraving. He was a member of numerous art societies and, in 1859, founded "Athene", an association for "art, science and humor". During the 1860s and 1870s, he travelled throughout and made lengthy stays in the mountains of Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland (notably the Harz Region), filling sketchbooks with drawings and watercolors. Two years after his wife's death in 1884, he succumbed to complications following a bout with pneumonia. Many of his works were lost during the two world wars, but an extensive collection still exists at the

Kulturhistorisches Museum Magdeburg The Kulturhistorische Museum Magdeburg ''(KHM)'' is a museum in Magdeburg for Cultural History. It was originally founded in 1906 as an art-historically oriented ''Kaiser-Friedrich Museum''. The museum focuses on the history of the city in perman ...

Sources

* Lisa Hackmann: "Wodick, Edmund", in: Bénédicte Savoy and France Nerlich (Eds.): ''Pariser Lehrjahre. Ein Lexikon zur Ausbildung deutscher Maler in der französischen Hauptstadt. Vol.1: 1793-1843''. De Gruyter, 2013, , S. 316-318. * Matthias Puhle (Ed.): ''Edmund Wodick (1816–1886). Ein Magdeburger Maler des späten Biedermeier.'' Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2011, (Exhibition catalog, Kulturhistorisches Museum Magdeburg) * Sabine Liebscher. In the '' Magdeburger Biographisches Lexikon'', Magdeburg 2002,

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wodick, Edmund 1816 births 1886 deaths People from Börde (district) People from the Province of Saxony 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German genre painters German portrait painters Biedermeier painters Deaths from pneumonia in Germany