Gustav Bauernfeind (; 4 September 1848, in Sulz am Neckar – 24 December 1904, in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

) was a German painter, illustrator and architect of partly Jewish origin. He is considered to be one of the most notable Orientalist painters of Germany.

Education and early career

After completing his architectural studies at the

Polytechnic Institute An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...

in Stuttgart, he worked in the architectural firm of Professor Wilhelm Bäumer and later in that of Adolph Gnauth, where he also learned painting. In his earlier paintings, Bauernfeind focused on local views of Germany, as well as motifs from Italy.

Painting the Levant

During his journey to the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

from 1880 to 1882, he became interested in the Orient and repeated his travels again and again. In 1896 he moved with his wife and son to Ottoman Palestine and subsequently settled in Jerusalem in 1898. He also lived and worked in Lebanon and Syria. His work is characterized primarily by architectural views of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. The oil paintings of Bauernfeind are mostly meticulously crafted, intricately composed and almost photographically accurate cityscapes and images of known edifices. In addition, he produced landscape scenes and

watercolours Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

Reception

During his lifetime he was the most popular Orientalist painter of Germany, but would fade into irrelevance after his death. However, since the early 1980s, Bauernfeind was gradually rediscovered, with his paintings appearing at auctions with high prices. Thus, his oil painting ''The Wailing Wall'' was sold at Christie's in London for the equivalent of €326,000 in 1992. The same painting would reach at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

in London the equivalent of €4.5 million in a later auction in 2007. In 1997, another oil painting of Bauernfeind, ''The Port of Jaffa'', was sold at the Van Ham Kunstauktionen in

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 ...

for 1,510,000 DM, thus becoming the most expensive 19th-century painting ever sold in Germany.

Legacy

At his birthplace in Sulz am Neckar, the life and work of the painter is commemorated by the Gustav Bauernfeind Museum with a large permanent exhibition. Gustav Bauernfeind grave

Work

Gallery

File:MarktJaffaGustavBauernfeind1887.jpg, ''Market at Jaffa'', 1877. File:Bauernfeind, Gustav - At the Entrance to the Temple Mount, Jerusalem - 1886.png, ''At the Entrance to the Temple Mount, Jerusalem'', 1886. File:The Wailing Wall by Bauernfeind.jpeg, ''

The Wailing Wall The Western Wall ( he, הַכּוֹתֶל הַמַּעֲרָבִי, HaKotel HaMa'aravi, the western wall, often shortened to the Kotel or Kosel), known in the Western world, West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall (Arabic: ...

'', 1904. File:Canal Scene in Chioggia by Bauernfeind.jpeg, Canal Scene in

Chioggia Chioggia (; vec, Cióxa , locally ; la, Clodia) is a coastal town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Venice in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Geography The town is situated on a small island at the southern entrance to the L ...

Select list of paintings

* ''Castel Gandolfo am Albaner See,'' 1864 (Drawing) * ''Markt in Jaffa,'' 1877 (Oil painting) * ''Der Hafen von Jaffa'', 1888 (Oil painting) * ''Straßenszene in Damaskus,'' um 1887 (Oil painting, 51 × 68 cm) * ''Jaffa, Einziehung der türkischen Landwehr in Palästina,'' 1888 (Oil painting) * ''Die Klagemauer, Jerusalem,'' 1890 (Oil painting, 130 × 101 cm) * ''Straße in Jerusalem'' (Oil painting, 109 × 82 cm) * ''Ansicht der deutschen Kolonie in Haifa,'' 1898 (Oil painting) * ''Jerusalem, Blick von unten auf den Felsendom'' (Oil painting, 109 × 82 cm) * ''Eingang zum Tempelberg, Jerusalem'' (Oil painting, 102 × 70 cm)

Books

* ''Die Reise nach Damaskus. 1888/89. Tagebuchaufzeichnungen des Orientmalers,'' herausgegeben von Hugo Schmid unter Mitarbeit von Otto Höschle, Tübingen und Basel 1996 ()

Bibliography

* Hugo Schmid: ''Der Maler Gustav Bauernfeind (1848–1904) und der Orient.'' Mit einer Einführung von Petra S. Versteegh-Kühner. Hauswedell, Stuttgart 2004, 208 (XX) S., * Hugo Schmid: ''Der Maler Gustav Bauernfeind. 1848–1904.'' H. Schmid, Sulz 1980, 149 S. * Alex Carmel, Hugo Schmid (Bearb.), Gustav Bauernfeind (Ill.): ''Der Orientmaler Gustav Bauernfeind. 1848–1904. Leben und Werk''/''The life and work of Gustav Bauernfeind, orientalist painter.'' Herausgegeben in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Gottlieb-Schumacher-Institut zur Erforschung des Christlichen Beitrages zum Wiederaufbau Palästinas im 19. Jahrhundert an der Universität Haifa, Israel. Hauswedell, Stuttgart 1990, 360 (XII) S., * Petra S. Kühner: ''Gustav Bauernfeind. Gemälde und Aquarelle.'' Monographien zur bildenden Kunst, Band 5. (Dissertationsschrift.) Lang, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, New York, Paris und Wien 1996, 315 (X) S., * Hugo Schmid, Otto Höschle (Bearb.), Gustav Bauernfeind (Autor): ''Die Reise nach Damaskus 1888/1889. Tagebuchaufzeichnungen des Orientmalers''. Francke, Tübingen 1996, 135 Seiten. . * Hugo Schmid: ''Der Orientmaler Gustav Bauernfeind in Italien''. Geiger, Horb 2008, 128 Seiten. .

References

;Attribution * ''This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article of the German Wikipedia.''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bauernfeind, Gustav 1848 births 1904 deaths People from Sulz am Neckar People from the Kingdom of Württemberg German people of Jewish descent 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters German orientalists Holy Land travellers Orientalism Orientalist painters German male non-fiction writers